Crocodile skins worth $0.5m will be exported to Japan

Bangladesh is going to export crocodile skins worth about US$0.5 million to the international market by October this year. A private crocodile farm -- Reptile Farm Ltd (RFL) - will export skins of about 500 crocodiles to a Japanese firm.    

If exported accordingly, this will be the country's  maiden crocodile skin export. Earlier, in 2010, the same farm exported some 67 frozen saltwater crocodiles to Germany fetching around US$ 0.1 million. It was the country's first export of crocodiles to the international market.
"If everything goes well, the export will be completed by October this year," said Rajib Shome, the Executive Director of the farm.  With this export, an unconventional product is likely to add to the country's export basket which is heavily depended on readymade garments (RMG) and a few other items.
The farm, situated at Bhaluka, Mymensingh, is now preparing to export skins of 500 crocodiles, hatched on the farm and raised commercially to produce high quality skins. The saltwater crocodiles, mostly ages between 2.5 and 3.5 years, are now kept at individual pens and nursing with high cares. They are being given healthy food, kept in pens at export shades which are stress and noise free.
Experts from the importing firm visited the farmhouse several times and gave necessary instructions how to get the quality products. "We are expecting at least 70 per cent of the skins are of grade one which are used in making fashionable items," the executive director said. Well-off people pay high prices for those items, he added.
As the country does not have any scientific slaughtering house and crocodile tannery, experts from Japan will guide the slaughtering and initial tanning process. They will also train some local experts so that they could alone conduct the process at least to make the raw skins exportable.
After exporting 67 crocodiles to Germany, there are now more than 1,500 crocs, including over 100 adult breeders in the farm, said farm manager Dr Abu Syem Muhammad Arif while talking to this correspondent at the reptile farm at Bhaluka. He expects around 800 new babies next year, from the existing breeds, and more in the coming years.
In the last two weeks, two crocodiles laid about 110 eggs. Twenty three more are waiting for laying eggs this season. The authorities are expecting about 700-800 babies from 1200 eggs of 25 crocodiles this year. In 2006, two crocodiles laid 69 eggs but due to lack of incubator the eggs could not be hatched properly.
In 2007, a modern incubator was installed in the farm under the supervision of a crocodile expert from Australia and the farm became successful in hatching the babies. By this time, the farm has invested more and hopes to enter the international market by strengthening its husbandry practices and infrastructure to produce faster-growing, bigger animals that have better quality skins.
"Over the past years, we have built special incubation facilities and other infrastructure for hatching the eggs and raising the baby crocodiles," said Dr. Arif. The farm, according to its management, is getting good responses from foreign buyers including Hong Kong, Japan, China and Korea to import croc skins from the farm.
The private reptile reproduction enterprise was launched in 2004 with the aim of farming saltwater crocodiles commercially for export. The farm imported 75 breeders from Malaysia in December, 2004 at a total cost of around Tk 12.5 million. Of them, one died during the plane journey, and six others have also perished since. Initially, the farm established on 13 acres of land housed 68 crocodiles in 12 artificial ponds and two lagoons. Now the area has been expanded to 21 acres, with major development of its infrastructure.
"Now we have the infrastructure and we would be able to export around 1000 crocs annually from next year," said the executive director. He said there is a huge demand for croc skins, meat and bones in Europe, America and other developed countries like Australia, Japan, Singapore and China, and charcoal made from crocodile bones is indispensable to the global perfume industry.
To meet this requirement there is a huge demand for crocodiles, specially the Saltwater Crocodile in the world market. And Bangladesh has an ideal geographical climate suitable for farming the crocodile. "In many countries an artificially created environment is needed for crocodile farming. But in Bangladesh there is no need to create an artificial environment," said the Executive director terming the country a suitable place for crocodile farming.