Over the past few years, Nguyễn Văn Chung's farm has become synonymous with ostrich meat and breeding in Ba Vi, Hanoi. Chung himself had a difficult upbringing, and struggled to earn a living with many traditional farm animals such as pigs and cows. However, it was not until he began raising ostriches 8 years ago that he was able to make a stable income. In fact, ostrich farming has proved to be quite profitable for Chung.
During the first few months, the farm made zero profit. However, now it generates a profit of about 14 thousand US dollars a year. According to Chung, ostriches are ready for the market when they reach 8 months and about 100 kilograms. Each ostrich can be sold at about 400 US dollars, yielding about 100 dollars of profit.
The greatest challenge to start an ostrich farm is that the price for breeding ostriches is fairly high - each is about 100 US dollars. Also, these birds grow slowly during the cold Vietnamese winters.
However, since the first ostrich eggs were brought to Vietnam 10 years ago, these birds have thrived and can be seen in over 30 provinces across the country. Every part of an ostrich is valued here: asides from the meat, the leather is used for fashion accessories, while the feathers are used for brushes, and the egg shells are used for jewellery and other handicrafts.
