PhnomPenhPost-July 4, 2022
Meng Sarath grabbed a handful of finger-sized zebra striped snakelets that were crawling around the roots of a hyacinth, explaining that they were the key to his livelihood after the Covid-19 crisis ended his job as a hotel cleaner in Sihanoukville. Sarath is the main Cambodian breeder of Bocourt’s water snake (Subsessor bocourti) – known as chan l’mom in Khmer – for the Vietnamese restaurant market. He also sells them to farmers who want to raise snakes as a family business. Within three years of beginning his career in hospitality, Sarath, 34, returned to his hometown in Ka’am Samnor village, Loeuk Dek district, Kandal province. He became interested in raising snakes, as he knew there was a demand for them in the Vietnamese market. He went to Vietnam and learnt how to raise the snakes and then decided to invest almost two million riel ($500) to buy snakelets and build ponds. He began by raising 400 snakes, which cost about 12,000 riel per head. Although snake farming is a legitimate private business, some species are not allowed to be bred without authorization from the authorities. Suon Sovann, spokesperson of the Forestry Administration, said that some wildlife species are considered to be rare, according to Prakas No 020 PRK 2007 of the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and fisheries, which classifies wildlife species. “Breeding pythons, flying snakes, lizards, roe deer, monkeys, swallows and so on, require permission from the Forestry Administration,” he told The Post. Right now, Sarath has partnerships with four domestic restaurants – two in Phnom Penh and two in Preah Sihanouk – and local customers order 3 to 4kg every half month. If domestic demand grows, he thought more people would become interested in breeding. He said that of the 200kg of meat he sold, about 150kg went to the Vietnamese market. Read more at: https://www.phnompenhpost.com/national-post-depth/covid-drives-move-snake-farming
