Crocodile breeders’ association to be set up in Vietnam

Crocodile breeders are lobbying management agencies for the establishment of a breeders’ association.

Ton That Hung, Director of Hoa Ca Crocodile Company has sent a document to the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development (MARD), requesting to give the permission to set up the crocodile breeders’ association in 2010.

It is estimated that 600,000 crocodiles are raised every year by households and establishments in small scale. Vietnam still does not have an industry that makes crocodile skin and high quality products of crocodiles. Therefore, Hung and other crocodile breeders believe that it is necessary to establish an association of crocodile breeders, named VietCroc.

According to Hung, though the crocodile breeding has been rapidly developing recently, the breeding technology has not been much improved. Crocodiles have still been raised under traditional methods, while breeding establishments do not cooperate with each other or share experience. Especially, in some cases, they even join unhealthy competitions which eventually cause losses to themselves.

“Once the Vietnam Crocodile Breeders’ Association is established, it will give technical support, help members share experience and provide information to enterprises. The association will serve as the catalyst which helps develop an industry which can make high quality products for export,” Hung said.

He believes that the association will also help increase the added value of the crocodile breeding industry, thus allowing to expand the export markets to developed countries in Europe and Asia instead of relying on Chinese market as currently.

The freshwater crocodile breeding in Vietnam took shape 30 years ago. Vietnamese farmers now can raise freshwater crocodiles (Crocodylus siamensis), salt water crocodiles (C. porosus), and Cuba sourced crocodiles (C. rhombifer).

It is estimated that 600,000 crocodiles are being raised in 27 provinces and cities. Most of the crocodiles are being raised in southern provinces (24 provinces and cities) which provide 90 percent of the total crocodiles nationwide. Every year, Vietnam exports 25,000-30,000 crocodiles or crocodile skin with the export revenue of $2.5-3 million.- Thoi bao Kinh te Saigon

Tags: Crocodile

Posted by VBN on Oct 10 2010. Filed under Agriculture. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can leave a response or trackback to this entry