A crab emerges from its cast-off shell at a crab farm in Myeik, Tanintharyi Division. Crab exports are a bright point for the Myanmar fisheries industry which was this year tasked with achieving a daunting $750-million export target.

CRAB exporters are closer to the US$25 million target allocated to them by the Department of Fisheries while exporters of other fisheries products are lagging behind, said a Myanmar Crab Entrepreneurs Association spokesperson.

He said the association is confident it will reach the target by the end of the financial year.

“We are closer to our export target despite facing a series of challenges in recent months,” he said, declining to mention what these were.

“But we are trying our best to fulfil the government’s crab export expectations,” said U Hnin Oo, the association president, during the annual general meeting in Yangon.

The meeting was held at the Myanmar Fisheries Federation headquarters on December 15 and was attended by the Minister for Livestock and Fisheries, Brigadier General Maung Maung Thein.

U Hnin Oo told the meeting that as of December 9, crab exports had earned about $21 million, some 84 percent of their target.

U Hnin Oo added that the association would focus on the conservation of wild crabs in the future.

“We are planning to set up crab hatcheries and farms instead of relying heavily on crabs from the wild,” he said.

Brig Gen Maung Maung Thein urged the association to quickly focus on crab farming.

“Catching wild crabs has obvious restrictions for the future because this is a limited resource and if we over-exploit it we can destroy the whole fishery,” he said.

He added entrepreneurs should focus their attention on setting up more soft-shelled crab farms because these sell extremely well in the international market.

Soft-shelled crabs are produced by placing crabs in fresh water while their shells are moulting, which stops the shells hardening.

There are already some soft-shelled crab farms in the Myeik region in Tanintharyi Division and one farm at Kyauktan township in Yangon Division.

A department official said last week that discussions are underway between farmers and the scientists on how to better develop crab farming at Kyauktan township. A focus of these talks was how to prevent the spread of disease from crab farms to shrimp farms in the surrounding area.

Kyauktan, meanwhile, is drawing increasing attention.

“One company has already set up a soft-shelled crab farm in the area and others are looking closely at it too,” said U Khin Ko Lay, the department’s deputy director general.

U Khin Ko Lay dismisssed concerns that crabs could bring diseases to nearby shrimp farms said the two types of enterprise could peacefully coexist.

“Shrimp and soft-shelled crab farms are situated alongside each other in Thailand and Vietnam and we have not heard that they’ve suffered any problems,” he said.

He said that as long as farmers closely manage their farms’ bio-security measures, both industries will be able to prosper. “But we will hold discussions with experts and farm owners to make sure that everybody is happy.”