NANJING - Crayfish-related industries saw robust growth last year as total output rocketed by 83.15 percent to 268.5 billion yuan ($42 billion) in 2017, said a report released Tuesday.

Crayfish farming generated an economic output of 48.5 billion yuan, and the amount created by crayfish processing accounted for 20 billion yuan, with the remaining amount contributed by the service industry.

The report was jointly released by the fishery affairs administration of the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs, the National Fisheries Technology Extension Center and the China Society of Fisheries.

According to the report, some 5.2 million people worked in crayfish-related sectors in 2017, including nearly 1 million crayfish farmers.

A total of 1.13 million tonnes of crayfish were raised last year, with the provinces of Hubei, Anhui, Hunan, Jiangsu and Jiangxi as major producers.