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| Home | Jun 05, 2001 |
vietnamnews.vnagency.com.vn |
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by To Quyen AN GIANG — Nguyen Huu Tho is what you might call a crocodile magnate. His farm in the southern coastal province of An Giang is home to about 5,000 crocodiles. Tho is among a small group of farmers able to raise such a large number of crocodiles and his business has been a surprise success. "I first raised six crocodiles purely for entertainment on 1ha of land on which I grew bonsai trees and kept animals," Tho, who hails from My Thanh Commune in Long Xuyen Township, said. Tho has grand plans for export potential, but these plans may be hampered somewhat by international trade restrictions. It all started back in 1993 when he happened to read an article about several successful crocodile farms in HCM City. Tho decided to expand his hobby farm into a full-grown business. "First, I travelled to HCM City to purchase 350 young crocodiles. I tried to start work as soon as I got permission from the provincial Forest Control Department." But his inexperience got the better of him and he found he could not increase his herd as planned. Nevertheless, Tho was resolute. He gathered information from local crocodile breeders and experts from Thailand. He discovered the environment in An Giang Province was more suited to breeding and raising crocodiles than any other place in the country. He even learnt how to artificially hatch crocodile eggs. "I had to stay awake at night to watch in case the crocodiles laid eggs as it is important to immediately take the eggs away and place them in an incubator."
After a trial period, Tho met with success. More than 60 per cent of his artificially incubated crocodiles hatched healthily and survived. This compares to a survival rate in the wild of just 2 per cent. Now, Tho’s herd is growing quickly. He has about 3,000 young crocodiles and 250 couples which he keeps for breeding. Two years ago, he had just 2,000 crocodiles on his farm, but this year the number is expected to reach 8,000. In 1996, Tho invested about VND1 billion to upgrade infrastructure and improve his farming techniques. But one of the critical factors in building such a business is preventing the crocodiles from killing each other. "I have to separate new-borns from the older crocodiles and create an environment which they like, including planting trees and installing a water pump." Tho said he tries to replicate a real natural environment for his crocodiles. Currently his farm employs seven workers with a monthly salary of VND700,000. Every day, Tho spends VND500,000 to buy food for his herd from nearby marine processing factories. His one-week old crocodiles can be sold for about VND60,000 each in domestic markets. Many of the new-borns are raised in other breeding farms. Crocodile meat can fetch as much as VND200,000 per kilo. Tho wants to export to China, where the meat trades for VND350,000 per kilo but he said international trade restrictions could put a dampener on his ambitions. Before he can export, he must get a response from wildlife protection authorities such as the forest control department. Tho hopes for greater support from environmental authorities to develop crocodile farming across the country, as the trade has only a few farmers and traders. The potential for profit and growth are undeniably large, even though some hurdles remain in international markets. Viet Nam signed an agreement on protection for wild animals in 1993 Conference on International Trade in Endangered Species. Nevertheless, Tho hopes his venture will emulate the success of Viet Nam’s first crocodile farm. In 1987, the Hoa Ca Company Ltd became the first firm licensed to breed crocodiles and sell their meat and skins. At the time, it was a family-run farm with only a handful of crocodiles and an annual turnover of VND15 million. Now the company has more than 1,000 crocodiles, valued at VND900 million, and a 2,900sq.m compound containing cages, tanning facilities and a factory to make crocodile skin products. — VNS
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