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Pig Prices Soar High, Thai Residents Choose to Eat Crocodile Meat

Jakarta, CNN Indonesia

In the midst of the high price of pork, residents Thailand flocks turned to crocodile meat.

Thai pig farms are reportedly facing a crisis. Last week, the government said there were cases of African swine flu in the country. As a result, the supply of pork also decreased and triggered a price spike.

As an alternative, residents have turned to buying crocodile meat. Residents assess crocodiles have a higher protein content than pigs and the price is much cheaper.

One kilogram of crocodile meat is priced around US $ 2. This price is lower than the market price of pork, which has soared to US$6 per kilo.

Crocodile meat trader Wichai Rungtaweechai said since pork prices soared, he had received many orders for crocodile meat.

“Initially I didn’t know how to handle the demand. Restaurants and butchers asked for large quantities of crocodile meat to be delivered to them. Meanwhile other customers who wanted to try crocodile meat ordered take-away,” said Rungtaweechai, as quoted from SCMP, Saturday (22/1).

The switch from purchasing pork to crocodiles is due to the emergence of African swine flu in Thailand. After months of denial, the Thai authorities acknowledged that there was infection with the virus in their country.

Swine flu is known to have killed millions of pigs in Europe and Asia in recent years. This resulted in pork becoming scarce and supply prices soaring.

To combat this, hundreds of thousands of pigs in Thailand were culled, while other countries such as Taiwan and Cambodia banned imports of Thai pigs.

(blq / chs)

[Gambas:Video CNN]


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