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Published on November 1, 2007

Kamthorn Temsiripong has been in the crocodile business for more than a decade.

His family runs the Sri Racha Tiger Zoo in Chon Buri province, and he first joined the firm as marketing manager in 1996.

But after serving the family firm for a number of years, he realised the entire market for tourism-based crocodile farms in Thailand amounted to somewhere between Bt400 million and Bt500 million a year, and a market of that size did not offer the kind of future Kamthorn had in mind.

So five years ago, he split off his own business, called it Sri Racha Moda and set about building a future based on crocodile leather and locally made fashion products under the Karissa brand.

Kamthorn says Sri Racha Moda now produces both crocodile-leather products and crocodile meat. He has initiated a system of feeding his crocodiles in a single-animal-per-pond system to prevent damage to the skins resulting from fighting when the reptiles are kept in groups.

"Crocodiles bite each other if they're fed in a multiple-animals-per-pond situation, and this affects the quality of the skins and their value. We can sell a crocodile skin for up to Bt50,000 if we've fed the animal for more than five years in its own pond. That's five times higher than when they're fed the old way," he says.

Sri Racha Moda feeds small crocodiles until they are one year old, then sends them to 1,500 satellite farms throughout the Kingdom, where each reptile is kept isolated in its own pond for at least three years.

At this stage, they are about 1.8 metres in length and big enough to produce the leather for one handbag. The value of crocodile skins of this size is about Bt10,000 when they come from the single-animal-per-pond system. When they come from conditions of group rearing, the value is only about Bt3,000.

After being fed in isolation for three years, the crocodiles are returned to Sri Racha Moda for slaughtering. The company can produce 1,000 crocodile skins and 10 tonnes of frozen crocodile meat per month.

Some of the skins are sent to tanneries in places like Singapore before being delivered to brand-name leather manufacturers around the world. Others are returned to Sri Racha Moda for use in making its own fine leather products.

Crocodile meat is delivered to restaurants or exported to international markets under the Deli Croco brand, while blood, dried meat and crocodile oils are used in the pharmaceutical industry. Major markets for crocodile by-products are in East Asia, particularly China and Hong Kong.

"Chinese people believe crocodile meat and blood are nourishing for their health," Kamthorn says.

Sri Racha Moda's Karissa brand uses crocodile skins of the same standard as those demanded by such big-name brands as Gucci, Prada and Hermes, Kamthorn says. However, with the same standard of raw materials, a Karissa handbag may be priced at Bt50,000, while the big names can charge Bt1 million - 20 times higher.

As well as supplying crocodile skins to many foreign brand-name manufacturers, Sri Racha Moda operates as an original-equipment manufacturer for some brands and makes its own Karissa-brand products. The proportion of leather production used in its own brand is about 30 per cent, but Kamthorn says that will rise next year.

"An Italian label can add up to 20 times more to the value of crocodile-leather products," he says. "From now on, I believe the company's sales revenue from Karissa products will grow 100 per cent each year as we increase the proportion of output in the brand-name sector."

Karissa is the first crocodile-leather brand in the world to use a microchip identification system with each product. The chip contains the name of the owner, the date and place of manufacture and a number for each product.

Moreover, it reflects the company's environmental responsibility by carrying a message stating that each handbag is manufactured from farmed crocodiles and not from hunted animals.

All of Sri Racha Moda's products are manufactured in accordance with Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora standards.

Kamthorn says Karissa products are sold on the domestic market and exported to Japan. Total export sales in the first nine months of this year increased 10 per cent year on year, while domestic sales fell 50 per cent, because of the economic slowdown.

Sri Rach Moda is expected to record Bt120 million in revenue for this entire year, with 60 per cent coming from skin products and the rest from by-products.

"At present, Sri Racha Moda can earn Bt50,000 for each crocodile, from skin and by-products. I plan to increase the value of each crocodile to Bt500,000 within five years and up to Bt1 million each in 10 years. The total value of Thailand's crocodile industry may rise to between Bt10 billion and Bt12 billion a year if I can do as I project," he says.

Nalin Viboonchart

 The Nation