Binga croc farm to maintain grip on Belgian market

Oliver Kazunga recently in Binga
BINGA Crocodile Farm says it will maintain its grip on the Belgian market by exporting high quality meat to the European country. The farm is one of the country’s largest crocodile breeders. In an interview, Binga Crocodile Farm managing director John English said they were slaughtering 12,000 crocodiles per year with a variety of products exported to Belgium and Singapore.

“We’ve 35,000 crocodiles at the farm and our exports have a variety of products. We’re exporting mixed skins to Singapore and the meat to Belgium and some is consumed by local hotels.

“In Belgium, we’ve got a customer to take all our meat exports so we’ll strive to maintain that market by improving the quality of our exports,” he said. The crocodile breeder was also exporting meat to Namibia.

“We’re increasing our exports with a variety of products. Some of the skins are going to a tannery in Bulawayo. “Over the years, we’ve also worked on changing quality of the meat to meet standards required by the export market. We’ve done this through improving management,” said English.

He said the major challenge that they have at the farm was erratic power supplies that were as a result of faults on Zesa equipment.

“The biggest challenge that we’ve is electricity. On several occasions we go for hours without electricity not because of load shedding but faults on Zesa equipment. We end up resorting to diesel-powered generators which becomes very expensive on our part,” he said.

The farm started operating in 1964 as a crocodile egg collection unit but was bought by private investors who have injected more than $1,5 million in the past five years to expand its scope and production.

Operations at the farm now include breeding crocodiles for meat and skins.

Crocodile products are in high demand mostly in Asian and European markets.

It is estimated that Zimbabwe rakes in more than $100 million per year from exporting crocodile meat and skins to countries such as Namibia, Singapore, Belgium, Japan, the United States and Australia.