After a pause of months due to the COVID-19 pandemic, Bangladesh has restarted the export of aquatic animals, including live crab and eel fish, to China, one of its biggest overseas markets.

Thereby, the usual hustle and bustle returned to factories in capital Dhaka's downtown Uttara areas, including Nolvog, where workers start the process of sorting and packing crabs and eels into baskets before the sun rises every morning.

Factory owners told Xinhua on Wednesday that China has recently updated its list of sourcing countries paving the way for export resumption for Bangladesh.

They said the General Administration of Customs of China (GACC) has enlisted five Bangladeshi companies for doing business with their Chinese partners.

Ujjwal Kumar Roy, owner of the Roy Trade International, said their business with Chinese traders was affected due to COVID-19.

"Five companies have recently been allowed to send products from Bangladesh to China. My company, Roy Trade International, is one of these five companies," said Roy.

"One big thing is that Chinese people like eating Bangladeshi crabs very much. We are also happy to export crabs to China," he said.

Bhojan Kumar Saha, owner of the Nayan International, said he has been doing business with traders from different provinces of China over the past 30 years.

"We have been given guidelines from the GACC. We are sending products to China following that guidelines," he said.

He said farmers from whom they collect crabs and eels also follow the Chinese guidelines.

Bangladesh exports thousands of tons of crabs worth tens of millions of U.S. dollars each year, as foodies in East and Southeast Asian countries, mainly in China, have a special penchant for the tasty crustacean.

Exporters here collect crabs from mainly coastal zones in Bangladesh as they are fatter and heavier than those in other countries.

The country's weather, soil and water quality is particularly favorable for crabs, and exporters say they are in great demand in parts of Asia.

Until last year, industry insiders said about 35 to 40 tons of crabs were exported to China from Bangladesh every day.

But the country's eel and crab export boom to China reportedly suffered a setback last year after Chinese authorities stopped taking crabs from Bangladesh due to the lack of laboratory tests demanded during the COVID-19 pandemic, and the use of false certificates by certain exporters.

Niaz Uddin, a deputy director at Bangladesh's Department of Fisheries, told reporters in Dhaka recently that there is no problem now to export eel fish and crabs to China as Bangladesh has already met the requirements concerning quality control and against the use of false certificates.