{"id":2458,"date":"2021-08-23T04:15:54","date_gmt":"2021-08-23T04:15:54","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/vanhoamientay.com\/tourism\/luc-nhuc-ran-lom-ngom-cua-va-bat-ngan-chuot-tai-cho-mien-tay"},"modified":"2026-01-19T11:31:05","modified_gmt":"2026-01-19T11:31:05","slug":"swarms-of-snakes-teeming-with-crabs-and-countless-rats-at-the-markets-of-the-mekong-delta","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/vanhoamientay.com\/en\/news\/swarms-of-snakes-teeming-with-crabs-and-countless-rats-at-the-markets-of-the-mekong-delta","title":{"rendered":"Swarms of snakes, teeming with crabs, and countless rats\u2026 at the markets of the Mekong Delta."},"content":{"rendered":"\n

During the flood season, in the Mekong Delta, special markets appear selling wild-caught delicacies thanks to the rising water, such as eels, snakes, turtles, field rats, snails, crabs\u2026 When the flood recedes, these markets gradually become quiet, and people call them \u201cMekong Delta seasonal markets.\u201d<\/em>
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Snakes are sold in many places throughout the Mekong Delta, from large markets to small ones, but the most famous are the border area markets in An Giang province. Mr. Nguy\u00ean V\u0103n Tu\u1ea5n, owner of a snake purchasing facility at Kh\u00e1nh An market, An Ph\u00fa district (An Giang), said that every year from July to November, his facility increases staff to buy and sell this item.
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Mrs. L\u01b0\u01a1ng Th\u1ecb C\u1ee7a, who has been in the snake trading business for more than 5 years at V\u0129nh H\u1ed9i \u0110\u00f4ng commune market, An Ph\u00fa district \u2013 An Giang, said that this item has never lacked customers. Currently, every day she sells several hundred kilograms of snakes to traders in Ho Chi Minh City and other Mekong Delta provinces. The highest price is for king cobra (r\u1eafn ri voi) at 550,000 VND\/kg, other types such as r\u1eafn trun at 150,000 VND\/kg, h\u1ed5 ng\u1ef1a at 200,000 VND\/kg, and r\u1eafn b\u00f4ng s\u00fang at 110,000 VND\/kg\u2026
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This year, in addition to the common types, there are also red-tailed green pit vipers (r\u1eafn l\u1ee5c \u0111u\u00f4i \u0111\u1ecf \u2013 a highly venomous species that has recently attacked many people in the Mekong Delta), brought across by Cambodian people for sale to be used for making medicinal wine and tonics for men, priced from 50,000 to 100,000 VND per snake depending on weight.
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Rat snakes (r\u1eafn m\u1ed1i) are also in high demand, selling at 80,000\u201390,000 VND\/kg. Most of this species are imported from Cambodia in very large quantities every day.
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The flood season is also when many turtle selling points spring up. Rare and valuable turtle species also appear in the markets, priced from 280,000 to 350,000 VND\/kg, though most buyers are large restaurants and eateries.
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Mrs. Ng\u00f4 Ph\u01b0\u01a1ng Mai, who sells turtles at Kh\u00e1nh An market, said that every flood season she goes to Cambodia to buy turtles to sell because they have become very rare in Vietnam. Flood-season turtle prices are usually half the price compared to the dry months.
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Field rats are available year-round in the Mekong Delta, but they are most abundant during the flood season. When the fields are flooded, rats have to run up to higher ground, making them easier to catch. Ph\u00f9 D\u1eadt market in B\u00ecnh Long commune, Ch\u00e2u Ph\u00fa district (An Giang) is considered the largest rat market in the Mekong Delta. Every day, this place supplies tens of tons of field rats to pubs and restaurants across the Mekong Delta and Ho Chi Minh City.
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That\u2019s why rat prices during the flood season are cheaper: live rats range from 45,000 to 55,000 VND\/kg, cleaned rats from 90,000 to 120,000 VND\/kg.
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Tr\u01b0\u1eddng Xu\u00e2n crab market in Th\u00e1p M\u01b0\u1eddi district \u2013 \u0110\u1ed3ng Th\u00e1p is considered the largest crab market in the Mekong Delta. At this time, more than 100 tons of crabs of all sizes are gathered here every day for transport to Ho Chi Minh City and other provinces in the region.
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Flood-season crab prices for the lowest grade are only 5,000 to 6,000 VND\/kg. Mr. Tr\u01b0\u01a1ng Nguy\u1ec5n C\u1ea3nh from T\u00e2n H\u01b0ng district \u2013 Long An said that every day he sets 400 crab traps and catches more than 150 kg of crabs, then brings them to the wholesale market for traders.
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Long B\u00ecnh snail market in An Giang is also the largest snail trading hub in the Mekong Delta, where tens of tons of snails are purchased and wholesaled every day to meet demand in the Mekong Delta provinces and Ho Chi Minh City.
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The seasonal young silver barb (c\u00e1 linh non) market in An Ph\u00fa district, although it operates informally, is actually the largest collection point for young silver barb to be distributed nationwide. Besides local Mekong Delta fishermen, many Cambodian fishermen also bring fish across to sell every day.
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Along with the snake, turtle, insect, and aquatic product markets, many small wholesale markets for flood-season aquatic vegetables and flowers such as water lilies (b\u00f4ng s\u00fang) and sesbania flowers (\u0111i\u00ean \u0111i\u1ec3n) also appear along riverbanks in the border areas of An Giang and \u0110\u1ed3ng Th\u00e1p.
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In all these small markets, during this season, sesbania flowers (\u0111i\u00ean \u0111i\u1ec3n) are the most abundant item at vegetable stalls, priced at about 40,000 VND\/kg.
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According to Baomoi<\/pre>\n\n\n\n
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During the flood season, in the Mekong Delta, special markets appear selling wild-caught delicacies thanks to the rising water, such as eels, snakes, turtles, field rats, snails, crabs\u2026 When the flood recedes, these markets gradually become quiet, and people call them \u201cMekong Delta seasonal markets.\u201d Snakes are sold in many places throughout the Mekong Delta,…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":666,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"rank_math_lock_modified_date":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[653],"tags":[683,888,889,890,891,892,743,893],"location":[],"class_list":["post-2458","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","tag-an-giang","tag-an-phu","tag-bong-sung","tag-cho-mua-lu","tag-cho-ran","tag-cho-rua","tag-mien-tay","tag-mua-lu"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/vanhoamientay.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2458"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/vanhoamientay.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/vanhoamientay.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vanhoamientay.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vanhoamientay.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2458"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/vanhoamientay.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2458\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2494,"href":"https:\/\/vanhoamientay.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2458\/revisions\/2494"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vanhoamientay.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/666"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/vanhoamientay.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2458"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vanhoamientay.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2458"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vanhoamientay.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2458"},{"taxonomy":"location","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vanhoamientay.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/location?post=2458"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}