Thai farmer in Ky Son successfully raises palm civets

Clip: Xuan Hoang

The people of Nghe An highlands have long been familiar with raising local buffalo, cows, pigs, chickens, goats... but Mr. Luc Van Hung in Ba village, Huu Kiem commune is the first person to raise palm civets in the border district of Ky Son.

bna_chin 1.jpg — This palm civet (locally called fruit weasel) weighs about 10kg when fully grown. Photo: Xuan Hoang

Leading us into the palm civet breeding area, he showed us cages made of steel bars welded together firmly. Each cage is more than ^1m2 wide, with 1 to 2 palm civets in it.

Mr. Luc Van Hung confided that in 2020, when reading books and newspapers, he saw that someone in Thanh Hoa province had successfully raised palm civets (locally called fruit civets). This type of animal has high economic value and is popular in the market, but few people raise it. Knowing the address, he went there to ask how to raise it and bought 5 young animals for 50 million VND to try raising them. After buying the young animals, Mr. Hung submitted a dossier to the forestry department to be granted a certificate to raise this animal species.

bna_chon 2.jpg — Mr. Loc Van Hung said that this type of animal must be kept in a sturdy iron cage, otherwise they will be lost immediately if they escape. Photo: Xuan Hoang

In the process of raising this type of palm civet, it is shown that the main food is porridge cooked from rice and ripe bananas. Because this type of animal sleeps during the day, it only needs to be fed once a day at night. For an adult palm civet, each time it eats 1 kg of thin porridge and a few ripe bananas, so the cost is low, suitable for the conditions of mountainous areas.

After nearly 4 years of taking care of Mr. Hung's herd of palm civets, they have produced 12, bringing the total herd to 17.

"In the process of raising, it has been shown that palm civets are easy to raise and cost little. On hot days, they often have stomach aches, but if given medicine, they recover immediately. The price of commercial palm civets on the market is very high, 1.5 million VND/kg. There have been customers asking to buy them, but I haven't sold them yet, because I want to develop a larger herd. This type of palm civet only produces 1-3 civets each time, so it is slow to multiply the herd," said Mr. Luc Van Hung.

bna_chon 3.jpg — The palm civets raised by Mr. Loc Van Hung's family are growing well. Photo: Xuan Hoang

Ban Ba is located next to National Highway 7A, currently has 137 households, all of whom are Thai people. Mr. Loc Van May, the village chief, said that the villagers have a lot of experience in raising livestock and poultry, but Mr. Hung is the first to raise palm civets. Some households in the village saw that Mr. Hung's family was able to raise palm civets, and also wanted to invest in raising them, but due to the high price of the breed and the high cost of building cages, they did not have the conditions.

Mr. Nguyen Xuan Truong - Head of the Department of Agriculture and Rural Development of Ky Son district said that in this remote mountainous area, people have long been familiar with raising local buffalo, cows, pigs, chickens... The model of raising civets (fruit civets) of Mr. Luc Van Hung in Huu Kiem commune is the first in Ky Son. This is a new livestock, so the district will encourage households to invest in expanding their farms for further development./.

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