Ostrich farming in Vietnam developing

There is much development evident in the ostrich farming sector in Vietnam, said the Department of Animal Husbandry.

It is reported that there are currently 12,000 breeding ostriches on 56 farms situated in 40 provinces and cities in the country. There are 16 farms in the central region alone where 8,911 ostriches are raised for their meat.

After realising that ostriches adapted well to local weather and fetched big profits, the director of Khanh Viet Corporation (Khatoco) in Khanh Hoa province (originally a tourism company) began to focus his attention on breeding these massive birds. This is now the largest ostrich-farming company in the Vietnam.

Khatoco became a joint stock company farming ostriches and now breeds 1,500-2,500 birds on its 3 farms. In addition to this it also has several processing plants.

Deputy Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development Vu Van Tam, however, has said that the industry also faces many difficulties. Infrastructure and equipment remain back-ward, while the scale of production is not large enough, he said, adding that the industry needs to co-operate with farmers to address the problems of labour and land. “Development a brand name for Vietnamese ostrich products is essential,” he said.