The crab association in Kunshan City, Jiangsu Province, has promised a 1-million-yuan (US$125,000) reward for Taiwan health inspectors who can find traces of carcinogen in the mainland's Yangcheng Lake hairy crabs, the Shanghai Morning Post said yesterday.

The association said it will invite Taiwan health inspectors and media to its hairy crab farms to view the breeding environment and do further tests, the report said.

"The inspectors will be rewarded one million yuan if they detect any carcinogen in our hairy crabs," Gong Binglong, chairperson of the crab association in Kunshan's Bacheng Township, said.

Seven of the 514 batches of hairy crabs from the Yangcheng Lake exported to Taiwan last month from an aquatic farm in the city were suspected of containing AOZ, an antibiotic that has been linked to cancer, Taiwan media reported last week.

The island's health department announced its finding about the crabs last Monday, one month after the authorities in Taiwan declared the crabs were safe.

The more than 300 families who breed crabs in Bacheng contribute almost half of the crabs produced in the Yangcheng Lake, the famed lake in the province bearing the brand-name Shuizhongxian.

The 1,203 crab-related wholesale markets, restaurants and supermarkets in the town generate 1 billion yuan between late September and December, the most popular season for hairy crabs.

"The town welcomes around 60,000 customers from Shanghai during the weekends in the high season," Gong said.

"Though the island's report has posed no impact on the local market till now, we still feel it's necessary to invite them to have an on-spot inspection," Gong said.

The association will cover all of the transport and accommodation fees of the inspectors.

Yang Weilong, chairperson of the Suzhou Yangcheng Lake Hairy Crab Association, said that negative reports had been frequently heard about the Yangcheng Lake crabs.

The Kunshan Exit-Entry Inspection and Quarantine Bureau has been inspecting the local crab breeding procedures since 2002, and the improved water quality of the Yangcheng Lake has added to the fame of local crabs.

Editor: Yan