[PHNOM PENH POST]
THE value of crocodile hatchlings has increased this year due to a
growing demand for the meat from regional buyers, according to the
sector’s largest producers.
“The price continues to increase year
to year because of increasing trade with China and Vietnam,” said Kaing
Sarin, proprietor of a two hectare farm in Kandal province’s Kandal
Steung district.
Many brokers from Vietnam have started
purchasing hatchlings from Cambodia to raise over the border and sell to
buyers on the Chinese market, he claimed.
“There is high demand for crocodile meat in Vietnam and China, they enjoy eating it.”
Kaing
Sarin added that a number of farmers sold off breeding crocodiles
because of a decline in hatchling prices, however, this resulted in
prices again rising.
Last year, the farm sold almost 10,000 hatchlings at US$19 to $20 each to Vietnamese middlemen, he added.
“This
year, I hope for 13,000 new crocodiles to be hatched, which will be
sold at $28 per head,” said Kaing Sarin, who has invested $600,000 in
his farming business of more than 3,000 breeding crocodiles.
Farmers
in Siem Reap are pleased with the price increases, however, they are
also struggling to capitalise on the situation because of a lack of
hatchlings.
“The last two years have been strong for selling
crocodile hatchlings, but we don’t have many left,” said Khoeu Chhin,
who has raised the aquatic reptiles on a half-hectare farm since 1997.
He witnessed a modest jump in hatchling sales this year, from 3,000 to 7,000 and wants to further expand the business.
The
rise in value of hatchlings is primarily down to strong demand from the
Chinese market, according to Director General of the Department of the
Fisheries Association Nao Thouk.
“The leap in prices this year will push crocodile farmers in the Kingdom to spend more on their production,” he said.
Cambodian farms do not yet raise crocodiles for their skin, which requires a larger capital investment, he added.
“[Foreign] buyers purchase crocodile hatchlings in Cambodia to raise for skin and meat,” he said.
During
2010, Cambodia’s crocodile farms bred a total of 185,000 hatchlings,
according to a previous report from the Ministry of Agriculture,
Forestry and Fisheries. It added farms are mainly in Kandal, Siem Reap,
Battambang, Kampong Chhnang, and Kampong Thom provinces.
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