WUHAN — At 3 am, the only sound Ding Yuankai can hear is the gentle splash of oars slicing through a pond in Qianjiang, a city in Central China's Hubei province.

With a flashlight strapped to his wrist and clad in waterproof overalls, Ding sets off in his small boat to begin his daily routine. One by one, he hauls up cages wriggling with red, armored crustaceans destined for dinner tables across the country.

By the time he finishes checking all 60 mu (4 hectares) of his ponds, the sky begins to pale. On the shore, seafood buyers are already waiting.

"When it gets hot, crayfish burrow into the mud to avoid the sun, so the catch drops," Ding said. "But it doesn't matter. Whatever I catch sells out. Qianjiang crayfish have a name. There's never a shortage of demand."

This year marks his ninth season in the business. Last year, his profits topped 5,000 yuan ($701) per mu. And with feed costs down and yields rising, he expects this year will be even better.

In Qianjiang, this optimism runs deep. Every summer, the little crustaceans become a big business and a way of life.

Much of Ding's morning haul will end up at the China Crayfish Trading Center on the city's outskirts. By 5 am, the facility is abuzz. Workers sort, weigh and pack live crayfish for same-day shipment to restaurants and markets nationwide.

Seafood vendor Wei Xiaotao monitors real-time prices on his phone through a digital platform that tracks supply and demand across over 30 production bases and major consumer cities.

"Farmers and traders can adjust their harvesting times and volumes based on price trends," Wei said. "It helps us better manage risks."

Some of Qianjiang's crayfish skip the fresh market and head straight for processing. At local factories, they're peeled, fried, seasoned and packaged, destined for shelves in Europe and the United States. Others are refined into high-value ingredients such as chitosan and chitin, which are used in pharmaceuticals, food and cosmetics, extending the value chain further.

Qianjiang is now home to 48 crayfish processing enterprises, with a combined annual handling capacity of 800,000 metric tons.

Qianjiang is located on the Jianghan Plain, a major producer of rice, cotton, fish and shrimp. With fertile land and a large network of rivers and lakes, the plain is an ideal habitat for crayfish.

The species is native to North America and was introduced to East China's Jiangsu province by a Japanese merchant, appearing in the plain in the 1980s. Locals found the shellfish tasty and soon turned them into big business.

In 2024, the city sold more than 200,000 tons of live crayfish. In the first half of 2025, it recorded a trade of 177,000 tons, and the full-year volume is expected to reach a record high.

To sustain growth, Qianjiang is pushing for technological innovation and year-round supply. In 2023, the Hubei provincial government launched a 10-point action plan to promote the high-quality development of the crayfish sector. Measures include those related to improving breeding systems, forming expert panels and developing new varieties.

Xinhua - China Daily