The city's first hairy crab supermarket opened at the Huxi Aquatic Products Market last weekend and sales have been unexpectedly good.

"We set up the supermarket mainly to solve the problem of honesty," said Hu Wende, general manager of the market on Tongchuan Road.

If the pilot supermarket is a success, it will be moved to the Oriental International Aquatic Products Market, the city's largest market of its kind, next year and more such supermarkets will be opened in the city, officials said.

The shelves of the 60-square-meter supermarket are packed with hairy crabs from Taihu Lake, with prices ranging up to 128 yuan (US$16) for each male crab weighing about 250 grams or each female crab weighing about 200 grams.

The store is currently selling about 10,000 hairy crabs with a total weight of 2 tons a day.

"The sales are quite good and more hairy crabs will be supplied after hairy crabs from Yangcheng Lake and Hongze Lake go on the market later this month," said Huang Junfeng, a manager at the market.

He said the market used to receive complaints from consumers about underweight crabs, bad quality and crabs from famous lakes being sold without markings to prove they aren't counterfeit.

(Source: www.shanghai.gov.cn )