Xiang Yang searched the seabed for a while and caught four tiger crabs, two swimming crabs, and a large lobster weighing nearly one pound. He filled the net bag and then started to swim upstream.
After swimming to the surface, Xiang Yang was about to call on the people on the boat to help lift the net bag up when he suddenly saw a lot of people standing by the side of the boat.
"captain."
"Brother Yang."
Many people shouted loudly after seeing Xiang Yang.
"Is there anything wrong?" Xiang Yang asked loudly after taking off his hood.
"Xiaoyang, come up first. Everyone under the water has come up. We are waiting for you." He Mingde said.
"Everyone has gone up, are they just waiting for me?" Xiang Yang wondered in his heart, but he still climbed up the ladder to the deck.
"What's so mysterious?" Xiang Yang asked as soon as he went up.
"Captain, look." Chen Qingsheng handed Xiang Yang a gray object with great care.
Xiang Yang was startled by the thing, and said in surprise and delight: "Abalone!"
That’s right, the thing in Chen Qingsheng’s hand was exactly what people often call abalone.
What is abalone
Even people who have never eaten seafood know that abalone is a rare treasure in the sea.
"Yes, not only abalone, but also triple-headed abalone, purely wild triple-headed abalone." Chen Qingsheng said excitedly.
"Such a big abalone is actually just a three-headed abalone?" Xiang Yang was playing with the palm-sized abalone in his hand and couldn't let it go. Abalone has always been a traditional precious food in my country. Its meat is tender and has a strong flavor. It ranks first among the eight "sea treasures" and is an extremely precious seafood. It has always enjoyed a reputation as the best seafood in the international market.
Many people who have eaten abalone may feel that abalone does not live up to its reputation in terms of price or taste, because the abalone sold on the market is too cheap and the taste is far below people's expectations.
In fact, this is not the case at all.
Abalone has been regarded as the finest delicacy on the table since ancient times and it is not in vain. Although there are more than 90 species of abalone in the world, which are widely distributed throughout the Pacific, Atlantic and Indian Oceans, the production of natural abalone is still very scarce, and cannot even meet the needs of a small number of the powerful class. Therefore, the abalone seen on the market are basically farmed abalone.
Do you think that abalone farming is enough
Far from it.
Even farmed abalone is extremely precious.
The price of abalone is proportional to its body size. The larger the abalone, the more valuable it is. The longer the breeding cycle, the greater the risk and the higher the cost. Almost all the large abalone in the abalone farms are reserved in advance by some big hotels, and not even a single one will be released to the market.
Some bosses who specialize in abalone business are real big shots if they can hold a batch of abalone with more than nine heads. It is impossible for ordinary people to sell to them. Unless you have a very good relationship with them, or you really have a special status, those bosses who specialize in abalone business will not pay any attention to you if you ask them to buy abalone with more than nine heads.
It can be said that abalone with more than nine heads never need to find a market themselves, people who want to buy them will come to them.
Some people drive past an abalone breeding base, and if they get off the car and ask to buy single-headed abalone or double-headed abalone, they will definitely not be able to even enter the gate of the breeding base.
There was a news in the past at an abalone breeding base in Liaogang. It said that a rich second-generation drove a Mercedes-Benz past the gate of the abalone breeding base, got out of the car and asked for some single-headed abalone.
There might be something wrong with the tone of the rich second generation, he spoke in a boastful manner as if the abalone from the abalone breeding base could not be sold.
As a result, the owner of the farm was also a hot-tempered person, and he directly confronted the rich second generation, saying, "How can you buy my single-head abalone when you have no relationship with me or any cooperation relationship with me?"
Later, the rich second generation was so angry that he secretly poisoned a lot of abalone and finally lost several million yuan.
Speaking of this, some people may still not quite understand what is single-headed abalone and what is double-headed abalone.
Single-headed abalone is one abalone per kilogram, and double-headed abalone is two abalone per kilogram.
The term "how many abalones there are" comes from weight, which means how many abalones can be weighed in one catty. The number of abalones in one catty is called "several heads of abalone". Similarly, nine abalones are called "nine-head abalone" and 32 abalones in one catty are called "32-head abalone".
It should be noted that the one catty here refers to the old system of sixteen taels per catty, which is 725 grams.
There is a saying that a double-headed abalone is worth a thousand pounds, which shows how precious it is. The abalone on the market are basically farmed abalone with about 25 heads in a package. Abalone of this size is very cheap, and generally a package of five will not cost more than 30 yuan.
Abalone becomes very rare when it grows to more than nine heads, and can usually only be eaten in some large hotels.
A nine-headed abalone, which is placed in a soup jar and has red, blue, green and other colors shining from its brown shell in a milky white soup, usually sells for between three hundred and one thousand yuan in a general hotel.
"Three hundred yuan abalone, not expensive!" Fang Youqun said after learning about it. He calculated his salary these days plus the diving bonus and red envelopes Xiang Yang gave him. Could it be that he couldn't afford a three hundred yuan abalone
Chen Qingsheng glanced at Fang Youqun and said, "It's not expensive. Nine pieces of this thing in one pound are sold for three hundred yuan each. Can you calculate how much it costs per pound?"
"Three hundred times nine, three times nine equals twenty-seven!" Fang Youqun's eyes widened suddenly, his voice trembling, "Nearly three thousand yuan per pound?"
"Actually, there is no such price." Xiang Yang smiled and explained, "That is the price the hotel sells it for after processing. The actual purchase price is much cheaper than this, about 400 to 500 yuan per kilogram."
"But we can't buy it at this price, and it's farmed." Chen Qingsheng emphasized.
"That's right. The price difference between natural abalone and farmed abalone is huge." Xiang Yang nodded.
Fang Youqun shuddered again, his eyes widened as he asked, "What a huge difference! Farmed nine-head abalone can be sold for four or five hundred yuan per pound, so what price would a wild single-head abalone be?"
Xiang Yang and Fang Youqun looked at each other.
Chen Qingsheng laughed and said, "What do you think a single-headed abalone is? A single-headed abalone refers to abalone that weighs more than 1 jin. Even the largest abalone in the world, the net abalone, rarely has a single-headed abalone. Other species with a single head are even rarer. The last single-headed net abalone in Guangdong Province was in Zhongshan. The weight of that single-headed abalone was 625 grams and the price was 2.5 million yuan, which is 2 million yuan per jin."
"Two million per kilogram?" Fang Youqun opened his mouth wide and said blankly, "Oh my God, gold is not even worth this much, right?"
"A single-headed abalone is much rarer than gold. There are many things in this world that are more valuable than gold." Chen Qingsheng patted Fang Youqun's shoulder and said in a serious tone, "If I could catch a single-headed abalone, I would not sell it but keep it as a family heirloom. Alas, why didn't my ancestors pass down a single-headed abalone to me?"