China has been shipping farmed/Cb reptiles to the US for a good while now, rats, vipers, some of this and that, the stuff is easy to get. You can do it online.In China the snake farm thing has been big for a long time (the 70 `s), they crank out a lot of snakes, like all "farms" they are a blend of actual captive breeding and collecting WC gravids and baby stuff. The bottom line is they produce hundreds of thousand's of snakes.......

but its been all about medicinal stuff, food etc. That's where the long term doe is and not in supplying the pet trade. They dont care about some animal dealer or collector, With the big places ...if you want to buy snakes, you tell them how many tons you need , not how many animals.

The Chinese have never been serious about getting into the reptile pet market. A couple guys here and there.The big end of the Chinese pet industry has been mostly fish (and maybe smuggling), The few guys that are in it for the live reptile trade are really small time by comparison. Given the advancements and success the Chinese have had with fish including the incredible things they have accomplished with the captive breeding of marine fish....if they ever really went for it with reptiles I have no doubt they would have lights out production. "forgetaboutit" But.........

Comparatively Fish have a much higher turn over then reptiles, the live fish market supports the kind of numbers that excite the Chinese, the reptile market wont come close. Even if they get a cites quota I don't see a long term flood of animals being imported into the US. Without getting into all the numbers, (possible violation of KS terms) at this point importing live reptiles from China pretty much sucks and the truth is its not really worth it. There's some nitch market animals , but even those aren't a big deal here any more. That's why so few people waste their time on the China stuff.Im sure if you could get some legal cites stuff that would create some new excitment for about 5 minutes.

The rumors that China could legally ship Cites animals direct the US are true. It looks like its going to happen, it might be a year way but I think their moving towards an agreement. Personally, I don't see it having anything in the way of a long term effect, the turtles.... they wont ship in any numbers, the snakes and things like Shinisaurus, after a couple of shipments ... the market will dry up and no one will want them, you always have that "new stuff" rush and then the bottom falls out. That's how it usually goes. For the most part, I think China getting a cites quota is all about trying to monitor the alternative reptile usage's and has very little to do with the pet trade.

Ernie Eison
WESTWOOD ACRES REPTILE FARM INC.

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