Yen Thanh field crabs are 'sold out', at times up to 120,000 VND/kg

From 8:30 p.m. to 9:30 p.m., go on National Highway 7B, through the districtYen Thanh, many crab purchasing points appeared in the communes of Nam Thanh, Bac Thanh, Xuan Thanh, Cong Thanh.... Observation showed that at each location, farmers from middle-aged women to teenagers, wearing boots, flashlights on their heads, carrying plastic buckets of crabs to sell. Everyone had mud on their feet and hands.

Ms. Nguyen Thi Thom, a buyerfield crabsIn Bac Thanh commune, it is said that because at 9:30 pm, crabs must be sent by bus to Hanoi for consumption, every night they buy crabs between 8:30 pm and 9:30 pm. Accordingly, farmers also start going to the fields from sunset until this time. Regardless of how much they get, everyone brings crabs to traders to buy, and they get money right away.

"Due to the hot weather in recent days, the demand for field crabs for food processing is high, so the price has increased sharply, some days up to 120,000 VND/kg. However, because at this time, there are not as many field crabs as in April, so it is not enough to meet customer demand," Ms. Thom shared.

Ms. Nguyen Thi Mai, a farmer in Tang Thanh commune, said that the tools to hunt crabs only need a flashlight on the head and a plastic bucket. When seeing crabs crawling in the water, use your bare hands to catch them. However, when going to the fields, everyone must wear boots that hug the knees to avoid snake bites and stepping on sharp objects. "At night, snakes often crawl out to look for food, especially the very poisonous black and white snakes. If you accidentally step on a snake, the consequences are unpredictable, so everyone buys a pair of boots to wear," Ms. Mai said.

With many years of experience catching crabs at night, every night Mrs. Mai catches a large amount. Like these past few days, every night she catches more than 2 kg, sells them to traders for 100,000 - 120,000 VND/kg, which is about 250,000 VND. "My husband works as a laborer, I stay home to take care of the family, and at night I work hard to go to the fields to catch crabs, earning extra money to cover my living expenses. For farmers, earning a few hundred thousand VND a day like this is enough to buy food," Mrs. Mai shared.

According to crab traders, the weather has been extremely hot since the beginning of June, and the demand for crabs to prepare dishes from customers in Hanoi is high, so all the crabs in Yen Thanh countryside have been consumed. However, there are fewer crabs than in the first months of the year, so the number of crabs caught by people is not much, each trader can only buy about 100kg of crabs/night, making the supply insufficient for customers to order.

Field crabs are caught by people in the fields, completely developed naturally, so the quality is guaranteed, and are favored by consumers to prepare nutritious, cool dishes in the summer.

Field crab is a rustic and nutritious dish. Field crab is not only used to make many different delicious dishes: crab vermicelli, crab soup, crab hotpot, crab rice noodles, fried field crab... but field crab also has many nutritional values ​​for human health such as: promoting blood circulation and healing wounds; preventing osteoporosis and rickets, cooling the body...