Director at Corran Farming Limited, Stuart Ross, has indicated that the crocodile farm is looking to increase its capacity from the current 2,000 crocodile skins a year to exporting 10,000 skins annually.
In an interview, on the sidelines of an investor engagement forum organised by the Malawi Investment and Trade Centre (MITC) recently, Ross said the initiative will ensure earning valuable foreign exchange for Malawi as well as promoting the community.
“We are currently looking in the region of $600,000 (about K1.05 billion) revenue. When we get to capacity, we’ll be looking at about $5 million (about K8.7 billion) a year. But I think what you’ve got to understand is it’s a very regulated industry. We had to get accredited by an organisation called the International Crocodilian Farmers Association. Our buyer is in Italy, a company called White Line. They go around about 54 farms worldwide in a year.
“We are one of eight accredited farms in southern Africa and one of 42 worldwide and the buyer reckons that we’re one of the best farms he’s ever been to. So, from a Malawi point of view, we’re on the map,” Ross said.
Ross was quick to indicate that the biggest challenge for the project has been finance.
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“If we don’t get finance, we cannot expand and the cost of finance, the cost of communication is high, and the transport infrastructure needs to be worked on. But Malawi has a resource that no other country has; that is Lake Malawi. It is the third largest freshwater lake in Africa, and it’s being underutilised,” Ross said.
This is coming at a time Malawi is looking to increase its exports to be able to finance its import bill.
According to the World Bank Malawi had a total export of $1 billion and total imports of $3 billion leading to a negative trade balance of $2 billion.
