The “fever” of Russian crab consumption in Korea

Due to the influence of Western sanctions against Russia as well as China’s anti-epidemic blockade measures, crab exports from Russia have been poured into South Korea.

King crab or snow crab used to rarely appear on the dining table of most people in Seoul, Korea. But about a month ago, they were seen more often in seafood markets due to increased demand.

Ms. Kim Mi-Kyeong – Seafood seller said: “A few months ago, the price of crab was very expensive because we did not have enough supply from Russia, but recently the supply has increased and the price is also much cheaper. Normally 100 people visit the market every day, now the number of visitors has doubled.

Russian crab prices have nearly halved since late February when the US, European Union and other countries banned imports of Russian seafood. And China’s blockade of major cities due to the COVID-19 outbreak has further boosted crab shipments to South Korea.

Data from the Noryangjin Seafood Wholesale Market, one of the largest seafood markets in South Korea, shows that the price of live snow crab imported from Russia has dropped by more than half, from 50,000 won (or more than 930,000 VND)/kg to just over 930,000 VND/kg. 23,000 won (less than 430 thousand VND) / 1 kg at the end of March, when the supply more than doubled.

South Korea, although among the countries applying sanctions against Russia, only restricts coal imports and participates in a number of other economic and financial sanctions. Currently, this country still imports food and food from Russia.

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