Crocodile export starts from December
May 28, 2009
Bangladesh will export the skin, bone, teeth and meat of crocodile from a commercially run firm from December. “We expect to start export of crocodile from next December,” Mushtaq Ahmed, the chief executive of the country’s sole crocodile firm, Reptiles Firm Ltd, told bdnews24.com, “As many as 100 crocodiles will be exported in first batch,” he said. “The hide of the crocodile will be the main export product. A crocodile with all its meat, bone, and teeth can be sold up to $ 1500.”
The firm launched crocodile cultivation on 15 acres of land at Uthura of Valuka in Mymensingh after bringing 75 salt water reptiles of crocodylus porosus species from Malaysia on Dec 2004.
Of them, eight died later on, he said
Mushtaq expected that they would not have any problem in getting buyers as the skin of such crocodiles is in great demand in the world market for manufacturing luxury product.
He also expressed the desire to turn the reptile firm in to a tourist spot.
“We want to grow 15,000 crocodiles by 2015 with export of 5,000 crocodiles a year”
Mentioning the benefits of crocodile firm, he said , “The project requires a few workers . Apart from this, crocodiles are less vulnerable to disease.”
Mushtaq said initial investment was Tk 5 crore which now stands nearly at Tk 8 crore.
The chairman of the firm, Mesbahul Huq, a pharmacist, financed the project. The Equity and Entrepreneur Fund unit of Bangladesh Bank approved around Tk 2.5 crore in loan for the project.
Source: bdnews24
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