The village that breeds white horses to make bone glue
Dozens of households in Pham village in the northern province of Thai Nguyen have good incomes thanks to a new job: raising white horses to process bone glue and supply horse meat to restaurants across the country.
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| Pham Village in Duong Thanh commune, Phu Binh district, Thai Nguyen province is considered the village of VND billionaires. |
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| Before 1990, most of the villagers earned their income from rice and other agricultural products. Since they switched to breed white horses, many households have built big houses and bought cars. |
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| Duong Van Huyen, Head of the White Horse Co-operative of Pham village, said 48 households in the village breed white horses and all of them are wealthy. |
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| White horses are mainly purchased from China and the mountainous provinces of Lao Cai and Cao Bang for VND15-VND20 million (US$700-US$900)/horse. After a year of breeding, they are sold for VND50-VND60 million (US$2,500-US$3,000)/horse. The earnings will be higher if breeders directly slaughter horses for taking meat and process glue from horse bones. |
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| A villager, Ms. Nguyen Thi Nhien said her family began raising horses for meat 15 years ago. Several years later, the family bred horses to cook bone glue. The family recently built a new house and bought a car. |
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| Currently, her family raises white horses to process bone glue and to make horse pie. |
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The price for 1kg of white horse bone glue is VND18 million (US$800). This product is believed to be able to treat bone and joint diseases. |
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| Similarly, Ms. Duong Thi Cuc’s family breeds horses to make bone glue. Cuc earns VND300 million (US$15,000) of profit/year. |
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| Cuc’s family has four white horses. |
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| To save costs, Cuc grows grass at home to feed the horses. |
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| Duong Quang Bach, Vice Chairman of the white horse cooperative of Pham village, said the cooperative has about 200 white horses. Bach’s family has 10 horses. |
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| Duong Van Dung, chief of Pham village, said thanks to breeding white horses, the villagers’ average income in 2014 was over VND50 million (US$2,500). The number of poor households decreased from 35% in 2003 to 5% in 2012. |
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