Cambodia’s fields are in a special harvest season, with tens of thousands of rats trapped every day to supply the growing export market.
The hunting season peaks in June and July. At this time, rats have little food, plus this is the rainy season, so they have to move to higher areas and fall into traps.
“hamsters are very different.
Field mice are considered a specialty in many Southeast Asian countries.
If he is lucky, one night Chhim can catch 25 kg.
These rats “taste a bit like pork,” Chhim said.
`We sell rats to get money to buy fish,` said Chin Chon – another rat catcher, as he was busy removing cages and preparing scales for classification, packaging and export.
Rat meat can be grilled, fried, boiled or made into pate, Chheng An said.
Cambodian hamsters are widely exported to Vietnam.
At the peak of the rat catching season, Saing Sambou – a 46-year-old trader in Cambodia exports up to 2 tons of rats to Vietnam every morning.
Like most other Cambodians, Sambou does not often eat rats.
Hean Vanhorn – an official at the Cambodian Ministry of Agriculture said that rat meat business also helps protect the country’s crops.
At the Vietnam-Cambodia border in Koh Thom district, Thuong Tuan (30 years old) was skinning and cutting up a lot of rat meat.
Nearby Vietnamese customers love to buy Tuan’s rats, because the meat is fresh and pre-processed.