Chinese Importer Cancels 300,000 Orders for Hairy Crabs

Spotting that the Germans have a surplus of hairy crabs and don't hold them in the same esteem as the Chinese, one enterprising Taobao store owner decided to import a load of them.  Receiving nearly 300,000 orders for them, and the fact that Germans detest the crustaceans so much they sell them for the same price that the Chinese sell cabbage per kilo, there was a obviously a metric shitload of money to made.

That is, until someone from the China’s General Administration of Quality Supervision pointed out that hairy crabs are actually live animals and are subject to the same quarantine rules as anyone else looking to import any other kind of animal.  The oversight has cost the site, juhuasuan.com, more than 9 million Yuan ($1.47 million), including the 30% added on to the refunds that the 20,000 customers will be entitled to.

China's General Administration of Quality Supervision, Inspection and Quarantine said it did not give any permission for importing German hairy crabs to China. But the importer insisted that the German authorities had issued a quarantine certificate. The German company involved in the deal got the original production place certificate while the Chinese importer only needed an import and export clearance.

In a statment, the CEO of the company, Zhang Jianfeng simply said “We are sorry about the German hairy crab issue. We screwed it up."

 

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More Chinese Teenagers Buying Cigarettes Online

"Refraining from selling cigarettes to young people is not just a slogan," said Yang Gonghuan, former deputy director of the Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention, although the China Daily reports otherwise, saying that more and more young people are using Taobao to get around tobacco sales laws.

Zhang Yunlong, a 16-year-old from Shenyang, Liaoning province, admitted he is a chain smoker.

"I've been smoking for more than two years and have been buying cigarettes online for one year," he said.

Zhang said it takes him only a few minutes to complete his online purchases.  "Owners of online stores don't care if you are an adult or adolescent. You only need to pay the money and they will deliver the cigarettes to you.".

By claiming to sell cigarette packaging, the online stores aren't required to check the age of the people who buy their products.  The online stores often have cheaper ciggies on sale, with discounts as well as a strict "no questions asked policy"  that makes it easy for underage kids to fuel their nicotine habit.

The story goes on to claim that four out of ten high school students smoke, and the numbers of smokers in China isn't about to start declining, six months on from the smoking ban that was issued at the end of 2012 following the a "re-commitment" to the smoking ban that had already been announced a year before, Chinese smokers still don't care about lighting up in public places.  Typically, government officials are more concerned with lower tax revenues being reaped as a result of illicit tobacco sales online.