Markets in Everything: China’s Village Specializes in Breeding Snakes

Markets emerge when people discover economic value in specific goods or services.

In China, cuisine and medicinal demand for snakes has led to a village specializing in snake breeding.

From Reuters,

This sleepy village nestled in the heart of vast farmland in China's eastern Zhejiang province hides a deadly secret.

A step into the homes of any of the farming families here brings visitors eye-to-eye with thousands of some of the world's most feared creatures -- snakes, many of them poisonous.

Cobras, vipers and pythons are everywhere in Zisiqiao, aptly known as the snake village, where the reptiles are deliberately raised for use as food and in traditional medicine, bringing in millions of dollars to a village that otherwise would rely solely on farming.

"As the number one snake village in China, it's impossible for us to raise only one kind of snake," said Yang Hongchang, the 60-year-old farmer who introduced snake breeding to the village decades ago.

"We are researching many kinds of snakes and the methods of breeding them."...

Today, more than three million snakes are bred in the village every year by the 160 farming families.

Snakes are renowned for their medicinal properties in traditional Chinese medicine and are commonly drunk as soup or wine to boost the person's immunity.