WGNO (New Orleans, Louisiana) 04 October 10 Gator Farming Bouncing Back From Bad Economy
It's a 60-million dollar industry in Louisiana. But alligator farming took a huge hit last year due to a struggling economy. Now- for some- business is slowly starting to pick back up. And the industry is starting to rebound.
Boxes and boxes full of alligator skins sit stacked up in a room on Gerald Savoie's farm in Cut Off.
Gerald Savoie Jr. Says, "we're at the end of the wild season now all the trappers are finished, we're gathering the skins now to be graded and measured and from there they are being shipped out to Italy, France and Hong Kong."
For 22 years Savoie has been raising gators and selling the skins overseas. This afternoon he showed off his product to a client from Italy. Savoie says, "I've had 3 visits in the past week and they're looking for skins."
It's just the businesses Savoie needs after having the roughest year of his life. He says, "we were sitting on two years of inventory no place to go."
Savoie had over 60-thousand gators on his farm. The economy was in a downward spiral. And there was zero demand for his supply. Savoie though he was going to have to shut down.
Fast forward to 2010- a change for the industry- and Savoie. Hides are starting to sell again. He says, "we've probably worked about 8-9 thousand pieces of skins, the production is up and people overseas are showing interest again."
The going price for skins right now --between $3 and $4 per centimeter.
While Savoie says it is progress.
He'd still like to see sales get to where they were two years ago -- $7 per centimeter. He says, "it's showing a little promise as long as we can keep it in the direction we going we should be ok."
He's certainly proved it so far - after experiencing the toughest year ever to hit this decades old gator farm.
Gator Farming Bouncing Back From Bad Economy