The model of raising specialty animals yields high economic efficiency.

Raising civets has helped the family of Mr. Tran Quoc Phuong in Hoat Giang commune earn billions of VND every year.

Recognizing the high economic efficiency and low feed costs of raising civets, in early 2020, Mr. Tran Quoc Phuong in Trung Chinh village, Hoat Giang commune, decided to abandon his carpentry profession and switch to raising civets. After receiving permission from the Ha Trung Forest Management Unit, he invested in building cages and traveled to Vinh Long province to purchase 11 civet breeding animals, including 8 females and 3 males.

According to Mr. Phuong, civets are clean animals that dislike damp, smelly places, so in addition to cleaning the cages daily, he also has to change their drinking water. At the same time, he has to disinfect the cages 1-2 times a week to prevent disease. Although they are farmed, they still retain their wild instincts, so they are very aggressive. If kept together in the same cage, the civets will bite each other, so he has to design small cages so that each civet has its own enclosure. Their food usually consists of bananas, jackfruit, papaya, and small fish... These are easily available foods with very low costs, about 3,000 VND per civet per day, but the economic value is very high. A female civet gives birth to 2 litters per year, with each litter producing 3-5 offspring, helping his family's herd of 50 parent civets sell 100-130 breeding civets and 1-1.4 quintals of civet meat to the market annually. With current selling prices of 12-14 million VND per breeding pair of mink and 1.65 million VND per kilogram of mink meat, the family earns a profit of over 1 billion VND per year.

The civet farming model of Mr. Trinh Van Ke's family in Nga Thang commune is currently generating hundreds of millions of VND in income per year. Mr. Ke said: “Before raising civets, my family raised pigs on a scale of up to hundreds of pigs. Coincidentally, while watching television, I learned about many civet farming models that yielded high income, low investment costs, and minimal care, so I decided to switch to civet farming. After obtaining permission from the authorities, I renovated the pig pens into a civet farm and Bac Ninh province purchased 9 spotted civets at a price of 17 million VND/each. However, initially, lacking experience, the purchased breeding stock was not guaranteed, so the civets got sick and reproduced poorly, resulting in inefficiency. In early 2022, I switched to raising civets. I bought 3 breeding civets, and by the end of the year, 2 mother civets gave birth to 9 fawns, which I continued to raise for breeding.”

According to Mr. Ke, he started selling mink breeding stock and mink meat in 2024. Currently, his family's mink herd, with 34 breeding minks (28 females, 6 males) and 200 minks for meat, brings in a profit of over 800 million VND per year for the family.

Raising civets can be considered a highly effective new model that causes minimal environmental pollution, requires little care, and has low feed costs, yet yields very high economic returns. Recognizing this, many households in the communes of Hop Tien, Yen Khuong, Hoat Giang, Nga Thang, etc., have recently boldly introduced civet farming and other specialty livestock such as bamboo rats, turtles, and porcupines, resulting in high economic efficiency.

According to the Department of Agriculture and Environment, raising specialty animals is thriving in many localities throughout the province, with 1,500 households licensed to raise species such as civets, bamboo rats, turtles, and soft-shelled turtles, totaling 225,000 individuals.

Text and photos: Minh Xuyen

Source: https://baothanhhoa.vn/mo-hinh-con-nuoi-dac-san-nbsp-dem-lai-hieu-qua-kinh-te-cao-259089.htm