SERIOUS business idea, honest feedback appreciated.

[Emdeka Anubis]

Greetings.

For the past week or so a close friend of mine and I were discussing the possibility of starting snake breeding business here in Barbados.
We've been doing a lot research (and we still have much more to do).

From what we've discovered, most species of constrictors are very easy to manage temperature wise; due to our natural snake friendly climate.
We've also learned that it would rather difficult and stressful to import snakes from any country outside of the Caribbean. For example, if we wanted to import snakes from the US we'd have to first obtain a local certificate permit ($25 local dollars) and plus a CITES permit which can cost $400 local dollars. Then after that the snake would have to be shipped to the UK for further examination (which you have to pay fees for as well) and then the snake would be shipped here in Barbados.

HOWEVER if we were to import a snake from the UK or countries/islands in our region, we'd only need the local permit (and perhaps some other paper work, but the snake wouldn't need to be examined)

Now if this is actually the case, we would defiantly be looking at doing some serious business with the UK market! However we still don't know what the procedures would be for exporting snakes to other countries. We'd really love to be able to ship to any part of the world (including the US) without any hassles as we wish to see the snake community grow stronger!

Any suggestions/thoughts?

[norwegn113]

I would have to honestly say that im pretty sure that having to ship that far there would be no way financially that you would be able to compete with the local US markets. It would not end up being profitable for you . There is also the fact of the stress that the animal would suffer traveling the long distance to the US. Based on just the 2 facts from above I would say that the US market for you does not look promissing for you.