Sea sponges cost 4 million VND each, gourmets still compete to buy them

On the morning of April 5, a few customers texted to ask to buy sea cucumbers, but Mr. Le Anh Tu, owner of the Alaska Lobster Supermarket in Giai Phong (Hoang Mai, Hanoi), had to shake his head because this type of seafood was out of stock, and asked customers to wait for the next trip.

He said that the batch of more than a dozen sea beetles that arrived the day before was all booked by customers the same day. In particular, the 3kg sea beetles, priced at 4 million VND, were bought by gourmets as soon as he put them up for sale early yesterday morning.

Sea sponges are seafood that are completely exploited in nature, not farmed. Living at the bottom of the deep sea, the meat inside the sea sponge is chewy, firm, sweet and fatty. Many people comment that their meat is even more delicious than lobster meat.

During fishing season, seafood stores have a lot of sea bugs (Photo: Anh Tu)

According to Mr. Tu, sea beetles weighing less than 1 kg/piece are imported and sold in large quantities by stores because it is the fishing season. The type weighing over 1 kg is relatively rare, not all stores have it. The ones weighing 2.5-3 kg/piece are considered super rare. Therefore, in the recent batch, the 2.5-3 kg/piece sea beetles were rushed to be purchased by customers.

“The bigger the ones, the firmer and tastier they are, so gourmets often buy this type of sea beetle.” He revealed that a few days ago, a customer in Lao Cai ordered 20 sea beetles from his supermarket. The customer requested the biggest sea beetles possible, but most of the shipments were only around 1-1.5 kg each.

The price of the sponges he sells is 1.35 million VND/kg. The total value of the order of sponges that Lao Cai customers bought is up to 33 million VND.

Most sponges sold on the market weigh less than 1kg (Photo: NVCC)

Ms. Ngo Anh Hong, a seafood wholesaler in Khuat Duy Tien (Thanh Xuan, Hanoi), said that from March, the season for harvesting sea urchins begins in Phu Yen, Khanh Hoa, Quang Ngai, Binh Dinh... and ends in May. Therefore, these days are in the main season, and there are many sea urchins for sale on the market.

However, depending on the weight of each sponge, the price of sea sponges varies. For example, she imports 600-900 gram/squirrel for 800,000 VND/kg; 1-1.5 kg/squirrel costs 1.5 million VND/kg. If customers request to process them into grilled or salt-roasted dishes, she charges an additional 100,000-150,000 VND/kg.

This is a swimming price, not frozen or iced so it is a bit expensive.

Giant sea sponges weighing 3 kg each can cost up to more than 4 million VND (Photo: Anh Tu)

“This price is 200,000-400,000 VND/kg more expensive than last year,” she admitted. Last year, due to the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic, consumption was difficult, so the price was relatively cheap.

This year, the goods still arrive regularly, 3 times a week, about 40-50 kg/trip. However, the giant sea beetles at Ms. Hong's store are always "out of stock" because many customers order them.

On the market, sea sponges are sold by stores at common prices from 600,000 VND to 1.5 million VND/kg depending on size. However, most stores only have sizes under 1 kg/piece. Sea sponges of size 2-3 kg/kg are extremely rare, customers who want to eat them must order in advance and wait quite a long time even during the main season.