The sale of hairy crabs, one of the most popular Mid-Autumn Festival gifts, has fallen under the government’s anti-corruption clampdown. For the first time in more than 10 years, the retail price of the expensive Yangcheng Lake hairy crabs in Beijing has dropped by more than 10 per cent compared with last year, according to the Beijing Times. Hairy crabs are currently selling for about 260 yuan (HK$328) per kg – about 40 yuan less than last year. Many stores selling Yangcheng Lake hairy crabs in the capital have been forced to shut down because of poor business, the report said. “The ongoing Party anti-corruption campaign should answer for the crabs’ price drop,” Yang Weilong, chairman of the Yangcheng Lake Hairy Crab Association in Suzhou, Jiangsu province, was quoted as saying. The crabs were previously bought as festival gifts for important guests at high-end restaurants. Until this year, about half of the hairy crabs from Yangcheng Lake, were sold for group buying as gifts. However, the volume of group buying for the crabs has dropped by about 30 per cent compared to last year, said Yang. In 2009, a man in Nanjing, Jiangsu province, paid more than 1 million yuan (HK$1.3 million) for 11 pairs of hairy crabs for “very important clients”, according to local media. While the crabs themselves are not expensive, the packaging, which can involve a helmet-shaped camail made of gold, increases the cost. Gifts of moon cakes during the Mid-Autumn Festival among family and friends have also been affected. The tradition has changed in recent years, as excessively packaged moon cakes are purchased as gifts for clients, superiors and government officials. The Communist Party of China launched the anti-graft drive after its 18th Party Congress in 2012. Since then a number of senior officials have fallen from grace for corruption and extravagant gifts have largely been eliminated.
