Why Crawfish?
Desmond Chow, the founder of Singapore Crawfish, found his awesome business by chance.
With his class of 200 students, they analyzed every single kind of plants, live stock and seafood. After 9 months of extensive research, the results pointed out that Crawfish is the most profitable live stock to rear and sell. Simply because of 3 main factors – the high reproduction rates of crawfishes, their extremely low mortality and their high international demand.
The Booming Market
According to the China Fisheries Association, China alone produced upwards of 1.2 BILLION Kgs of crawfishes in 2019. This has boosted their economy and fed millions of people.
The global crayfish market attained a value of 7123 million in 2022 and is further expected to grow at a CAGR of 31.5% over the forecast period of 2023-2028. The increasing health awareness amongst the consumers is fuelling the demand for crayfish in both developing and developed countries leading to the growth of the global crayfish market.
With the rise of the world’s middle class, a tasty crustacean such as crawfish commands an extremely high demand.
Why People Love Crawfish
Crawfish has a higher level of protein compared to most fishes and shrimps. It is rich in EPA and DHA, calcium, potassium and phosphorus. It also contains more iron and zinc than normal shrimp.
Seafood has a high proportion of polyunsaturated fatty acids, while crawfish has 15 fatty acids, among which 43% are unsaturated fatty acids.
Demand for Crawfish has No Bounds
Chinese diners dig in as the dish soars in popularity.
“Crawfish-related industries, including farming, processing and catering, saw output rocket by about 83 percent year-on-year to reach 268.5 billion yuan ($40 billion) last year. Crawfish catering alone generated about 200 billion yuan.” – China Daily, 2018
Global Crawfish Demand
The market is witnessing expansion, where global imports and exports are hitting all-time high. Demand > Supply
“China wants hundreds of thousands of tonnes of these a year and we can only produce 70 tonnes in Australia” – Dr Elliot
“Growing appetite for crawfish has Texas rice farmers hooked” – Houston Chronicle
Industry Facts and Numbers
China’s voracious appetite for crawfish has spawned a multibillion-dollar industry and tripled production of farmed crawfish between 2007 and 2016 to 850,000 tons.
“The booming crawfish industry, valued at 146.6 billion yuan ($21.58 billion) last year, employed over 5 million people on fish farms and in food processing plants and restaurants.” – Ministry of Agriculture, 2017