As the traditional Chinese Mid Autumn Festival is approaching, China’s gourmands and foodies are eagerly waiting the hairy crab season to fall.
China’s largest delivery company, S.F. Express, held a press conference on Wednesday at a main crab-breeding farm in Suzhou, a city near to Shanghai. The company announced that it would use one of the world’s largest freighter jets, the Boeing 767, to transport hairy crabs to its customers across the country.
“Of all the local hairy crabs, 95% are shipped to others parts of the country,” said Yan Jinhu, the head of the Hairy Crab Industry Association of Suzhou.
S.F. Express’s revenue for transporting hairy crabs last year was around RMB 200 million (USD 30 million), tech blog Jiemian reported. The revenue is expected to total RMB 280 million this year.
S.F. Express has been expanding their hairy crab deliveries over the past few years. Back in 2008, motorcycles were used to transport crabs. In 2012, the company set up a team to rent and direct freighter jets to ship hairy crabs. The cargo capacity of Boeing 767 is four times that of a Boeing 737.
As a leading courier in China, the revenue of S.F. Express totaled RMB 47.3 billion last year. As of last September, it had approximately 310,000 employees, 15,000 vehicles, and 20 aircraft. AllChinaTech reported in February its plan to list on China’s stock market.
(Top photo from Baidu Images)