Rabbit farmers sell directly to Japan, earning billions each year

Every day, Mr. Do Quoc Toan in Phuong Dinh commune (Dan Phuong, Hanoi) is busy with his work.farmhis rabbit. Located in the La Thach plains, this is considered one of the typical economic models, bringing a stable life to his family.

He confided that farming is now less difficult with the help of machines, and the work is much easier than before. Most of the work is done by family members, so he doesn't have to hire outside workers.

Previously, Mr. Toan was a bachelor of accounting at the University of Commerce. After graduating, he was fortunate to work for a state agency in his major. However, the restrictive office environment was not suitable for young people, so he wanted to explore and try his hand in new fields. In 2000, Mr. Toan decided to quit his job.businesstrade hoping to save some capital for future plans.

After more than ten years of working in the marketplace, business became increasingly difficult and arduous. After saving some capital, in 2016, he returned to his hometown to plan to invest in agriculture and pursue his passion.

"When I first heard about itrabbit farming, I was quite bewildered. In this area, almost no one raised pigs, and I had no knowledge about raising pigs. Raising pigs was plagued by blue ear disease and bird flu, so prices were unstable, and many households even suffered heavy losses. After considering, being introduced by friends, and learning more information online about the market, especially the needs of the Japanese market, I decided to invest in building a barn to raise rabbits," he shared.

In 2017, he started raising about 1,000 mother rabbits and adult rabbits on an area of ​​200m².

Having no experience in raising animals, at first he had to go to school to learn from previous households in other areas. There was even a time when the cages were not secure, not properly covered; the diet and food sources were not up to standard, causing hundreds of rabbits to be lost.

“Back then, the barn design was simple, most of it was done by hand. My family had 2-3 people working from early morning until late at night, the work was hard and there was no end to it. By the end of 2018, I invested in new machinery to help a bit,” he said.

The most memorable time was the first two years of looking for an outlet for rabbit meat. He was rejected countless times, but he still could not connect with the Japanese market. Therefore, he sold most of the rabbit meat to restaurants and wholesalers at a commercial price of 65,000 VND/kg. However, the price and demandmarketups and downs, some days sell a lot, some days sell a little, each day is unpredictable so the anxiety increases.

Luckily, in 2019, thanks to a trusted friend's introduction, he started to contact and cooperate with a Japanese company to buy rabbit meat. Since then, he has doubled the number of rabbits. Up to now, the area of ​​his barn has increased to 900 m², total herd of about 3,000 mother rabbits and adult rabbits.

Starting from zero, knowing nothing about animal husbandry and after many failures, Mr. Toan gradually accumulated experience, with a success rate of 95%.

Normally, adult rabbits are raised for about 90-100 days. Only those that meet the weight standards, from 2.3 kg/head, clean, and free of scabies are allowed to be sold. On average, each month, he sells about 800 rabbits to Japanese partners for research and drug production. However, due to the impact of the Covid-19 epidemic, in the past few months, the number of exported rabbits has decreased by half, to only 400-500 rabbits/month.

Currently, he sells commercial rabbits for 75,000 VND/kg. It is estimated that on average, he earns about 1 billion VND per year from raising rabbits, and after deducting expenses, he still makes a profit of several hundred million VND.

However, Mr. Toan also admitted that this rabbit farming job requires meticulousness, carefulness, and constant monitoring like taking care of a baby. Because, if you do not understand their habits and eating habits, they can easily get sick and die. In particular, you must have passion and love for farming to persevere in pursuing it.

“Thanks to stable output and guaranteed quality products that meet standards, my products have been in high demand in recent years. There were times when there was not enough supply to the market,” he said.

After many years of hard work and struggle, Mr. Toan has now realized his dream of a modern livestock model. Although there are still many difficulties and challenges, he believes that with love for the job, daring to do and being willing to learn to improve, he will definitely overcome them.