Chinese traders buy crocodiles, prices soar to record highs

The price of farmed crocodiles in Ho Chi Minh City is currently around 230,000 VND/kg, up 70% over the same period last year, and is in high demand.

The price of live crocodiles is at an all-time high, around VND230,000/kg, up about 70% over the same period last year. The high price is beneficial for breeders, but also warns of many consequences as China is the main market for this product.

Mr. Ton That Hung, Director of Hoa Ca Crocodile Company (District 12, Ho Chi Minh City) said that there is a situation where Northern traders are buying up live crocodiles. "If before, they only bought fish weighing more than 10kg each for meat, now they also buy small fish weighing 2-3kg each, not knowing what to do with them," said Mr. Hung.

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According to him, the characteristic of crocodile farming is that there are people who specialize in raising parent fish to hatch and sell baby fish, and people who specialize in raising baby fish until they are one year old, then selling them to fish farmers for meat (1-2 years later). When the small fish are bought up, in a year there will be no large 20kg fish to tan, which greatly affects this industry. "Currently, Hoa Ca Crocodile Company cannot buy more resources from outside households, so it has to keep the herd, even if the price goes up, it will not sell to ensure raw materials for future production," said the director.

Similarly, Mr. Bui Van Da - the owner of a large crocodile farm in Binh Hung commune, Binh Chanh district - also noticed a shortage of goods when traders called every day to buy fish but had no goods to sell. "The price of crocodiles has increased continuously over the past year and increased the most in the last 2 months, from 150,000 VND to 230,000 VND per kg. What is special is that this year traders accept to buy 'in bulk', not selecting fish larger than 15kg and intact like before."

Traders are buying live fish at high prices, causing the crocodile leather tanning industry to suffer from a shortage of raw materials and high costs, especially for facilities without farms. A representative of a company specializing in processing crocodile leather products said that they are having to reduce their production scale by half to survive because they cannot bear the high price of raw materials of 70%-80%, pushing up the output price by 50%, making it difficult to sell.

A survey at a fashion store specializing in genuine crocodile leather in District 1, Ho Chi Minh City showed that prices had increased compared to before Tet, the cheapest item, keychains, had increased from VND29,000 to VND39,000, some handbags were over VND20 million each, belts were VND1.8-1.9 million, wallets were VND2-5 million. In general, prices of all products had increased by about 20%, so sales were slower than before.

Meanwhile, a representative of the Ho Chi Minh City Farmers' Association said that the high price of crocodiles should be considered good news for farmers because about 3 years ago, crocodile farmers suffered huge losses. According to calculations, with the current price of fish for sale, farmers can make a profit of over 2 million VND per 15 kg fish because the previous price of buying fish for breeding was only over 300,000 VND.

Mr. Nguyen Dinh Cuong - Head of the HCM City Forest Protection Department, the main management unit for crocodiles - also had a similar opinion. According to him, crocodiles are rare animals in group 1B, so when raising, buying, selling, and transporting, they must be declared to the forest rangers. Monitoring data from the beginning of the year until now shows that in addition to the high price, the number of crocodiles sold is not unusual, the total herd has not decreased but has increased by about 5%. Perhaps due to the lack of overall information as well as the high price, many people think it is due to a shortage of herds.

When asked whether there is any illegal sale, Mr. Cuong said it is possible but only in small quantities, sold within Ho Chi Minh City. “If transporting to the provinces, all units must go through the forest rangers to do paperwork (free of charge) to travel because no one spends a large amount of money to buy goods and then have them confiscated and fined!” - Mr. Cuong analyzed.

With more than 20 years of experience in raising crocodiles, Mr. Bui Van Da predicts that with the current meat price, the price of crocodiles in the near future could reach 600,000-700,000 VND/crocodile while it is impossible to predict what the price will be in 2 years when they reach the age of being sold. Therefore, if we rush into raising them, we will inevitably see a disastrous price drop like before. "The story of Chinese traders pushing up the purchase price, waiting for people to raise a lot and then pushing them to the bottom has happened many times before, not just now" - Mr. Da warned.

From a management perspective, Mr. Cuong said that the price of crocodiles is not stable, sometimes falling below 100,000 VND per kilogram, causing farmers to lose a lot. Therefore, for experienced farmers, it is okay, but for new farmers, they must be very careful. Every year, the City Forest Protection Department holds training courses on crocodile farming, so those who intend to raise crocodiles can come here to learn in advance to ensure the safety of their capital.

Due to favorable natural conditions, crocodiles in Ho Chi Minh City are easy to raise, completely reproduce and grow up in farms, the main food source is low-cost sea fish. 80% of the value of crocodiles lies in the skin, more than 10% in the meat, the rest is from the bones used to cook glue. In addition, crocodile farming can also be combined with tourism - food and entertainment business. Currently, Ho Chi Minh City has 53 organizations and individuals raising crocodiles with a total herd of nearly 173,000 of all kinds./.

According to VOV.VN