A Chinese court is auctioning off 100 tons of live crocodiles, with a starting bid of 4 million yuan. Buyers will have to pick up the crocodiles themselves. The crocodiles belonged to Guangdong Hongyi Crocodile Industry Company and were seized after the company failed to meet its financial obligations.
A Chinese court is auctioning 100 tonnes of live crocodiles. The starting price for bidding on them has been set at 4 million yuan (US$550,000). Shenzhen Nanshan People’s Court has decided to auction these crocodiles online. This auction is being held on the Alibaba Judicial Auction Platform. Anyone can go to this website and bid in the auction. This unique auction taking place in China is attracting the attention of people all over the world. Many questions are being asked about this on social media as well.
The crocodiles being auctioned belong to Guangdong Hongyi Crocodile Industry Company. This company was started in 2005 by Mo Junrong. Junrong was once called the Crocodile God in China. His company had a turnover of more than 50 million yuan (7 million dollars) but the company went into losses and could not repay its debt. In such a situation, his property was confiscated, which included about 100 tons of crocodiles. Now the court has decided to repay the company’s debt by selling these crocodiles.
The auction will last for two months
This auction of crocodiles started on March 10 after a court order in China. This auction will last for two months till May 9. In this auction, buyers will have to bear the cost of catching, weighing, loading and transporting the crocodiles themselves. It is also written in the auction notice that buyers should have a license to raise crocodiles. If buyers are unable to fulfill these conditions, the court will confiscate their deposit of 3 lakh yuan. This amount will have to be deposited to participate in the auction.
Crocodiles are considered commercially profitable animals. More than 100 products such as leather, meat, medicines, cosmetics and alcohol are made from them. The Siamese crocodiles being sold in the auction were allowed to be raised and sold commercially by China in 2003. The weight of a Siamese crocodile ranges from 200 to 500 kg. According to this, there can be 200 to 500 crocodiles in 100 tonnes. There is a lot of discussion on social media about this online auction. Social users have made many comments on this.
