Business is slow, a farmer in Phu Tho brought thousands of poisonous cobras to cook into glue, but couldn't sell them in time.

Not only bringing economic benefits to the family, cooking cobra venom has partly supported snake farmers in the craft village to sell their products during the sluggish days due to the Covid-19 pandemic.

Slow business, bring cobra to cook glue to sell

Born and raised in the largest cobra breeding village in Phu Tho province, since childhood, Nguyen Van Binh (born in 1990), residing in zone 1, Tu Xa commune, Lam Thao district, has been familiar with the image of cobras raised in large and small cages of his family and neighbors.

Born in a cobra breeding village, Mr. Binh became familiar with these deadly snakes early on.

Although it is a venomous snake with a bulging neck, a hissing sound and a scary red tongue, thanks to the cobra, many households in his hometown have become well-off. Every day, trucks come and go busily, buying snake eggs or commercial snakes to export.

Growing up, following the village's profession, Mr. Binh boldly invested capital to raise cobras for sale, serving export orders to China. Along with that, Mr. Binh filtered and cooked old snakes that were not heavy enough to sell as commercial snakes into cobra venom.

The snake is gutted, cleaned, cut into pieces and cooked, both meat and bones.

“I researched some documents and found that cobra venom is extremely good for health, especially for people with bone and joint problems. Full-spectrum cobra venom contains many amino acids, saponozit, protein, folic acid and precious minerals that help increase synovial fluid for joints and regenerate cartilage, restore inflammation... so I also researched the formula and cooked cobra venom. The first batches of cobra venom, I mostly gave to my grandparents, siblings and for family use, not for sale,” said Mr. Binh.

However, in 2019, the Covid-19 epidemic began to appear, all export orders were suspended, and China completely stopped purchasing cobras. The cobra farming village in his hometown faced unprecedented difficulties. Many snake farmers had to sell off their snakes in their cages along with snake eggs at low prices to make up for their losses.

Cooking cobra venom has helped snake breeding villages increase economic value and consumption of products made by the village itself.

Not only that, tens of thousands of snakes have no buyers, many families are starving in their cages because they don't have money to buy food to maintain their animals. Some families have to dump snake eggs into ponds because no one is buying them.

“Before the pandemic, each kilo of cobra cost 700-800 thousand VND, each snake egg cost 50-70 thousand VND/egg. When the pandemic hit, no one bought it, snake farmers were in trouble because there was no outlet, even if they sold it cheaply, no one would buy it,” Mr. Binh recounted.

Seeing that, Mr. Binh immediately researched, improved, and perfected the recipe for cooking cobra venom, finding ways to sell snakes to help his family and some snake farmers in the craft village.

How to cook cobra venom?

Cobra venom products are sold for 7-8 million VND/kg.

According to Mr. Binh, the cobra snakes that want to be made into glue must be over 2.5 years old and must be licensed by the state to be raised in the craft village. Absolutely do not use snakes caught in the wild. Cobra glue is 100% made from cobras and is cooked with all the properties, that is, both the meat and bones are cooked, only the organs are removed, a little ginger and cinnamon is added but not too much.

The snake is gutted, cleaned, cut into pieces and cooked for 5 days and 4 nights.

“We have to balance ginger and cinnamon just enough, not too much so that people with high blood pressure can still use the extract without affecting their health. I have to cook many batches of extract. Some batches are too sticky, not hard enough, some batches have too much cinnamon, ginger... I have to ask for opinions from people who have used it and then gradually perfect the formula, creating the highest quality batches of cobra extract before selling it,” Mr. Binh analyzed.

After the breeding period, cobras will be cooked to make glue.

The cobras of the right age and standards are slaughtered, all the organs removed, cut into moderate pieces, blanched in boiling water and then cooked on a gas stove for 5 days and 4 nights, producing a golden brown paste.

According to Mr. Binh, on average, 10kg of cobra snakes will yield 0.6kg of glue and he sells it for 7-8 million VND/kg. The batches of cobra glue produced at that time were well received and ordered by many people, helping snake farmers consume a part of the commercial cobra snakes.

Cobra venom is sold by the ounce and can be stored in the refrigerator for about 2 years.

“This product was quite new and good at that time, so people told each other that it sold very well. People at that time had both money and time, and were more concerned about their health, so I sold out as much as I could cook,” said Mr. Binh.

Now, after the Covid-19 pandemic has receded for several years and the market has resumed trading, Mr. Binh still maintains the production of cobra venom, supplying it to customers in need across the country. From producing cobra venom, Mr. Binh also helps snake farmers sell their products, bringing in an income of over 100 million VND/year for himself and his family.

Source: https://danviet.vn/e-am-mang-nghin-con-ran-ho-mang-doc-di-nau-cao-1-anh-nong-dan-phu-tho-lam-khong-kip-ban-20250129221226659.htm