How Villagers Make Millions Growing Giant Mudcrabs in Blue Shoeboxes

these Vietnamese farmers are growing mud crabs inside a tiny little blue shoe box like that and they're earning Millions how many baby crabs do you put in at one time 100,000 crabs W that's crazy this is a vertical mud crab Farm it is an ingenious invention helping transform what is typically a very primitive slow low margin farming technique into an opera earning Vietnamese Villages Millions each of these shoe box size pens house a mud crab worth its weight in gold you see mud crab is some of the best meat on the planet it's highly prized everywhere they are found fetching huge price tags all around southeast Asia India Australia and Africa but there's an issue mud crabs can take forever to grow in the wrong conditions their shells are heavy and hard making the yield to weight low and making them incredibly hard to process in simple terms despite the meat quality crabs have to become huge before they're even really worth the effort this makes crab farming typically unviable or low margin and puts massive pressure on wild populations but here deep in the makom this mountain of blue plastic boxes could change all of that this technique makes a huge sum of money for the farmers create it's a sustainable solution that alleviates almost all of the issues and the end product well let's just say they cook crabs very very differently here in Vietnam and it does not disappoint and I think that might be the best out of all of this here when I visited mentol I was amazed to see how the sinking land had sparked an incredible Innovation the vast rice fields now flooded with ocean water had been transformed into sprawling mud crab Farms a site both unexpected and inspiring but it wasn't always like that when your parents grew up here they used to be rice Farmers yes uh before they are rice Farmers but when I was a child I was in this kind of industry which is a fish farm these Farms extend over immense tracks of land creating open saltwater ponds sea level is higher and then and also the land so the land has become level with the ocean level that's correct is that why the town near here seems to be sinking like everything when I drove past was underwater underwater basketball courts underwater churches yes but as much as this solution seems perfect for this area it's just not viable for most space is a big issue these mud crabs need a lot of room to grow out and that means taking up valuable Coastal land that is already typically pretty scarce there's also an endless Battle of water quality feed efficiency is just not really a thing here it's more of a spray and prey approach and with crabs living so closely together disease can spread like wildfire and cannibalism is a big issue what if your crabs Escape over there into the public Waterway it's free free crab yeah you have to release all females so that they like keep propagating in the wild it's a complex operation but seeing things firsthand Gideon and his family manage it well they grow out mud crabs for a large amount of time until they reach high market prices and it is still far more lucrative than rice farming could ever be for crbs and shrimp is very expensive especially nowadays so it's almost like a Better Business than rice farming that's correct guys I would like to take a minute to introduce you to today's sponsor for the video and that is ag1 you see nowadays I'm pretty much always on the Move I'm trying different foods experiencing different cultures and my diet well let's just say it can get a little bit unpredictable at times maybe even a little bit diing and that's why I've started using ag1 as part of my daily routine providing a range of entral nutrients and for me it's been a complete GameChanger in Wellness especially while I'm on the road where I just don't have the conveniency and consistency of home I absolutely love the handy travel packs they allow me to quickly and easily mix up pre-measured amounts of ag1 I've noticed that it supports my energy levels preventing me from feeling tired and drained during those long travel and shoot days and that my digestion feels great I feel like I've been having better support even when tackling those rather tricky foods and ultimately it's that peace of mind that I like the most the thought that I can dive into just about any local Cuisine and I won't be missing out on essential nutrients if you would like to give ag1 a shot yourself then please go to drink a1.com andrewf Fraser to get started on your order today ag1 is going to be giving my community a free supply of vitamin D3 and K2 along with five ag1 travel packs with your first purchase so thank you for ag1 for supporting today's video [Applause] [Music] but here in Vietnam things are starting to look a little different to find out exactly how we're heading deep into the makom down the narrow network of canals that make up the Delta here in vinow among the endless prawn Farms farmers are starting to up their game they're looking into innovative ways to level up their traditional farming techniques and ultimately to make more money and produce a better product this is where where vertical farming comes in and it is filled with rows upon rows upon rows of these vertical mud crab Farms now I've seen recently the mud crab farming in the Philippines they also use some sort of fattening up process at the end to sort of finish off these mud crabs and this is the same deal just take to the next kind of level these Farms are essentially a network of stacked shoe box siiz tens all connected with a large water filtration system this method is key it both optimizes space improves speed effic efficiency and growth rates but it also ensures optimal water quality it simplifies disease detection eliminates cannibalism completely and most importantly of all it makes mass production of soft shell crabs possible you see mud crabs experience a deceleration and growth as they age this is due to their molting cycle during which they shed and regenerate their shells initially this process happens frequently fostered by rapid growth but it gradually slows down with time because of this mud crabs can achieve a weight of 3 to 400 G within approximately 3 to 4 months but doubling that size to achieve what is typically marketable could require 3 to four times that long okay here's one for all the commenters because I know there's a bunch of Australian snobs out there saying I can't believe you guys are eating those tiny ass crabs they're not even legal fors they are legal these are farmed crabs no one is depleting wild stocks around here secondly remember these are primarily being eating as soft shell crabs you're getting the entire thing as yield you're not picking through for tiny little bits of Flesh these are as fat as can possibly be because they are fattened up on Pils and the shell has been shed that is 2 to 300 G of entirely edible crab meat everything is eaten nothing goes to waste yields jump from around 70% on a hard shell crab to 95% plus when sold in soft shell form so this is a fully prepared packaged final product a soft shell crab this the odest kind of thing this thing is Frozen by and large but even by feeling it now it has a little bit of give so crazy I don't know why so unusual but I'm just not used to seeing mud crabs in this kind of form you know the process is quite simple as the crabs are checked every day during feeding and cleaning times they can easily be spotted when they're mid molting and once they do MTT they are simply put on ice for sale this is not a dead crab it is a crab shell after it has changed its skin H part of the process of soft shell crabbing a little bit different than in the west where I don't think we usually bother but it's pretty crazy they just have tubs of crab shell lying around kind of like you see a snake skin but you know it seems entirely like a crab but it's empty and Guy nice to meet you man this is a pretty huge facility how many crabs can you grow at one time in this place 000 crabs how long have you been doing this for what's the best final product so the customer will request from you like a specific size or weight and how big is normal like what is the normal size crab that you will sell to them how many grams wow but what is most popular here are these soft shell crabs usually or are they crabs sold with the shell [Music] on what about when it's not soft sh how many baby crabs do you put in at one time holy 100,000 crabs that's crazy how big are they when you first put them in wow where do you get them from what time of year do you do that every season you're always adding more babies in oh wow and how long does it take from when they're a tiny pepper corn till they're ready to be put in here that doesn't seem like that long they grow pretty fast huh and what's the hardest thing about mud crb farming what could go wrong how many kilos do you typically export every month oh 30 kilos a day that's B better 900 kilos a month it's a lot of crabs pretty pretty impressive facility all right thank you very much that was a really interesting interview to me though all this efficiency stuff is all well and good but the idea of devouring an entire crab including its brains guts and gills well it could seem maybe a little bit off pudding and I can't really help but Wonder can this stuff really stack up to the amazing chili Ginger monsters that I've eaten recently in the Philippines to find out I'm heading back to Saigon to eat at Ming 94 renowned as having some of the best crab especially soft shell crab in all of Vietnam so these guys right here are actually live soft shell crab kind of [Music] crazy okay guys we have made it back all the way from the makom and we have in front of us one of the most delicious spreads of crab that you could possibly imagine and while I absolutely love mud crab crabs in general we're lucky in Australia we have such giant ass crabs the reward is worth the effort but it is still kind of ply even with the giant mud crabs we have back home luckily here with these bom mud crabs when they're soft shell you can eat everything and the best thing about mud crab in Vietnam in Asia in general is a lot of the work is done for you it's not just boiled it is laid out in some of the most spectacular dishes you've ever seen in front of us here we have just the qus just the best in we have soft shell crabs small but you can eat the whole thing there's no work involved and we have Ming s basically vermell noodles with all of the meat picked for you fried in garlic Chili's chat you name it flavorful Rich dish and I can't wait to dig let's go for it we'll try some straight up first and then we'll dip some in the sauce oh best bit about that really is just how much of the crab flavor is taken on by the noodles it's pretty incredible it's sort of all soaked in I don't know when they steamed the the Ming noodles the vermell noodles if it took on some of that crab flavor maybe there's a little bit of crab broth in when they're steing it but it is crazy even the noodles just taste pretty much entirely like that that beautiful mud crab flavor you get a lot more of those other flavors a little bit more of the chelot the garlic a little bit of chili it's not too spicy fantastic dish moving on so this bad boy is obviously the best bit of the crab and what I love about a restaurant like this is you don't have to dick around with everything else you can buy just the quartz I think we start with just biting this a little bit and then we're going to put some lime on it oh my God that is so good the batter has just helped keep the meat inside super moist and it's just I mean come on flaky flaky goodness I'm going to add a little bit of this lime to it and this time we're going to dunk it in this sweet chili sauce for a bit of that Asian flavor that is crazy just so good finally guys what we've really really come here for straight up soft shell mud crabs these ones were pretty small I have to admit maybe not as large as the ones we saw in the make them that really is a premium premium crab and the best thing about these Farm crabs as opposed to the wild ones are not only are you not depleting the wild stock but they are all 100% full of meat there's really no wayte there's none of that catching a giant giant mud crab and then finding out that it's essentially empty here we go first up shred up ra and then we'll try a variety of these different sources and I think that might be the best out of all of this here there's something about just including all of the different body parts in the crab here this the shell is just giving it a little bit more texture and it's so so juicy because of this batter unbelievable really dip it in some of the sweeten sour oh holy crap I think some people might put off a little bit by the texture but know me honestly this is far better to me once you get into the legs you get a little bit of that crunch a little bit of that texture from the shell but it's actually delicious it really contributes to does not take away at all from this crab I think I might actually prefer this just to the stke B let's try some of this Nook mom this fish sauce wow just Sensational there you have it guys Vietnamese soft shell crab M out deep fried crab cores if you come into Saigon I cannot recommend this place enough the address will be in the description don't miss out on this kind of crab if you are ever coming to Vietnam Sensational in the Battle of Filipino crab versus Vietnamese crab I don't know I might give the edge to Vietnam let me know what you guys think in the comments sorry to all my Filipino viewers that is it for this one guys thank you very very much for watching I honestly don't know why we do not do a little bit more to the crab in the west we seem to always just boil it and eat it like that it is definitely worth the work in my opinion to pick the meat and do these kind of dishes absolutely Sensational thanks for watching I'll see you in the next video boom bye

Channel: Andrew Fraser

Views: 346,846

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Id: 2eJ0UqiTC_s

Length: 15min 42sec (942 seconds)

Published: Sun Feb 25 2024