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International trade

Year of publication 1971

Pages X, 20

Author Alverson, F.G.

Publisher FAO ;

Product type Document

Edition 1

Synopsis (short abstract) Crab is sold alive, cooked fresh or frozen, and as canned product. It may be sold as whole crab, partially eviscerated, leg and claws, sections, and meats. The primary components that appear in foreign commerce are cooked frozen and canned product. Only a few of the world's many species of crab are of importance in the world market. The most important species are King (Paralithodes camtschaticus), snow (Chionoecetes opilio), Dungeness (Cancer magister), Korean (Erimacrus isenbeckii) blue swimmer (Portunus pelagicus) and mud crab (Scylla serrata). The biological characteristics of crab put certain constraints on the method of capture, how they are held, processed, and transported to market. It is essential to capture them with a method that does not cause bodily injury or the loss of appendages. Crab must be kept alive after capture and in a healthy condition up to the time of processing. The season and/or time of capture is very important as the quality and yield of post-molt crabs are low. The relatively low yields on crab dictate that their processing into fresh, frozen, or canned product should be at or near the point of landings or on board factory ships, Dungeness and snow crab yields are about 25%, king crab about 20% and blue crab about 15 or 16% of live weight. Crabs are harvested with a number of different types of gear. King and snow are taken with tangle nets and pots, Dungeness with pots, and blue crab with dredges, trotlines, pots and otter trawls. Landings rose steadily from 247.000 tons in 1960 to 380.000 tons in 1968. They dropped to 358.000 in 1969. Three countries - United States, Japan, and USSR - have dominated the landings over this period and they accounted for about 80% of the total. Four species of crab - king, blue, snow, and Dungeness - dominated the landings and, in the aggregate, account for approximately 74% of the total production. The most productive area in the world for crab is the north Pacific which in 1968, produced about 60% of a ll the crab taken in the world. The export trade, which is primarily in the canned form is dominated by two countries: USSR and Japan. Over the period 1960 to 1969, they accounted for approximately 95% of all exports.

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