Cambodia's Crocodile Farms are Struggling
Posted: Mon Mar 11, 2019 7:13 pm
Cambodia's crocodile farming industry struggling to remain afloat
Published 6 March 2019
(Phnom Penh Post/ANN) — The crocodile farming industry in Cambodia is facing uncertainty due to a lack of demand and increasing costs of crocodile feed, which has led to some breeders to reduce their operations.
There are many crocodile farms in the Kingdom – especially in Siem Reap province – most of which operate by selling crocodile hatchlings to Vietnamese buyers rather than raising them to adulthood for their leather.
Lim Rithy, a member of the Crocodile Raising Association of Siem Reap, said crocodile breeding in the province is not currently good due to a shortage of orders from Vietnamese dealers.
“Cambodia does not have a domestic market, we mainly rely on the Vietnamese market,” he said. “Vietnam is China’s main supplier of crocodiles, so when they get orders from China, they come to collect them from Cambodia.”
Because Vietnamese and Thai technology is more advanced, crocodile feed there grows faster than in Cambodia, he said.
According to Rithy, Chinese traders had previously expressed their desire to buy crocodile leather directly from the Kingdom, but currently none have done so after discovering that shipping costs are higher than in Vietnam.
“I would like the government to explore potential markets [so that we] can compete with our neighbours,” he said.
Rithy said breeding crocodiles for their leather domestically would be difficult because of a lack of investment, as well as no support from authorities, has diminished breeders’ confidence.
In a span of a mere five years, Rithy has reduced his inventory of crocodiles from 4,000-5,000 to just 200-300 today.
https://elevenmyanmar.com/news/cambodia ... ewsnetwork
Published 6 March 2019
(Phnom Penh Post/ANN) — The crocodile farming industry in Cambodia is facing uncertainty due to a lack of demand and increasing costs of crocodile feed, which has led to some breeders to reduce their operations.
There are many crocodile farms in the Kingdom – especially in Siem Reap province – most of which operate by selling crocodile hatchlings to Vietnamese buyers rather than raising them to adulthood for their leather.
Lim Rithy, a member of the Crocodile Raising Association of Siem Reap, said crocodile breeding in the province is not currently good due to a shortage of orders from Vietnamese dealers.
“Cambodia does not have a domestic market, we mainly rely on the Vietnamese market,” he said. “Vietnam is China’s main supplier of crocodiles, so when they get orders from China, they come to collect them from Cambodia.”
Because Vietnamese and Thai technology is more advanced, crocodile feed there grows faster than in Cambodia, he said.
According to Rithy, Chinese traders had previously expressed their desire to buy crocodile leather directly from the Kingdom, but currently none have done so after discovering that shipping costs are higher than in Vietnam.
“I would like the government to explore potential markets [so that we] can compete with our neighbours,” he said.
Rithy said breeding crocodiles for their leather domestically would be difficult because of a lack of investment, as well as no support from authorities, has diminished breeders’ confidence.
In a span of a mere five years, Rithy has reduced his inventory of crocodiles from 4,000-5,000 to just 200-300 today.
https://elevenmyanmar.com/news/cambodia ... ewsnetwork
