Why China buys it
BC Dungeness moves to China both live (into the live-tank retail and restaurant trade) and frozen. Live commands the premium; the buyer pays for vigour on arrival.
Dungeness crab has a natural home in Chinese cuisine. Cantonese kitchens in particular prize a live, heavy, hard-shell crab for steaming, ginger-and-scallion wok preparations and banquet service, and the live tank at the front of the restaurant is where the buying decision happens. Supermarket live departments and premium e-commerce platforms in the major coastal cities pull from the same import channel.
That makes Dungeness primarily a live trade at the premium end. Frozen whole cooked crab moves too, into retail freezers and food service, but the price ladder starts at the tank: a vigorous crab that survives the flight and looks strong in the water earns the top of the market.
Demand follows the festival calendar, with Chinese New Year and the autumn festival season the strongest windows. BC's proximity to Asia through Vancouver's air cargo lanes is a structural advantage: Canadian Dungeness export programs can land crab in China faster than most competing origins, and with the 25% tariff on Canadian aquatic products suspended through the end of 2026, the lane is fully open.
Read: Shipping live lobster & geoduck to China →
Product file
| Species | Metacarcinus magister |
|---|---|
| Source | BC / Pacific |
| Season | Varies by area |
| Forms | Live; frozen |
| Ship method | Air (live) / reefer (frozen) |
Buyer spec
What buyers pay a premium for
With live crab, the buyer is really paying for a condition, not a commodity: a heavy, hard, active animal in the tank a hemisphere away from your pot. The premium follows the handling.
- Vigour on arrival. Survival is table stakes; strength is the premium. Crab that comes out of the box active and combative grades to the top.
- Shell hardness and weight. Hard-shell, well-filled crab travels better and yields better. Light or recently moulted animals get discounted or rejected.
- Honest size grading. Buyers set size brackets for tank presentation. Grading tight to those brackets, and never salting a lot with undersize animals, is how a shipper's name gets built.
- Holding and packing. Proper holding before shipment, chilled and oxygen-supported packing, and minimal time between pack-out and wheels-up.
- Two-lane flexibility. Shippers who can also grade a portion for the frozen program give the buyer options, and give themselves an outlet for product that should not fly live.
Logistics
From your dock to China
Live Dungeness runs from your holding facility to Vancouver International's cargo terminals and onto a booked flight into a Chinese hub, timed so the buyer's team clears and tanks the crab with the least possible time out of water. The whole movement is planned backwards from the arrival slot.
Frozen Dungeness takes the ocean route: a temperature-controlled reefer container out of Vancouver that can be delivered to any major Chinese port, which lets the buyer route product straight to whichever region is pulling hardest. We help decide, deal by deal, which crab flies and which sails.
The brokerage
How we handle it
Selling Dungeness into China is a coordination problem: buyer, tank space, flight, paperwork and payment all have to line up. That coordination is our product.
- A vetted China buyer with real tank capacity and a defined spec, matched to your harvest area and season.
- Payment secured before your crab leaves the dock: no consignment roulette, no waiting on an overseas wire.
- Success-based commission, so our interests sit exactly where yours do: on crab that arrives strong and sells.
- Aggregation across harvesters when a single operation cannot fill a booking, letting smaller BC licence holders sell on program terms.
- Navigation of the CFIA and GACC pathway: as a high-risk aquatic product, your establishment must be recommended by CFIA through CIFER under the GACC regime, and CFIA issues the export certification. We coordinate every step; the agencies issue the documents.
Go deeper
Guides for dungeness crab shippers
Reefer vs live shipping to China
How to decide which lane your product should ride.
Reefer vs live shipping to ChinaShipping live shellfish to China
Survivability-first logistics from dock to tank.
Shipping live shellfish to ChinaHow to price your catch for China
Reading the grades and tiers behind the offer sheet.
How to price your catch for ChinaRelated species
Crabbing in BC? The live lane to China is short from here.
Tell us your area, your grades and your volumes, and we will give you an honest read on the live and frozen China market, with payment secured before shipment.