Coolibah (Australia) (AFP)

It is a place forbidden to the curious, accessible only by air in the rainy season, in an isolated region of northern Australia.

A farm bought by luxury giant LVMH to breed crocodiles of a breed renowned for the small scales of its skin: ideal for handbags.

From November to March, we arrive in Coolibah, in the Northern Territory, by helicopter.

The farm nestles between escarpments and multiple streams, surrounded by nature.

LVMH bought it in 2017.

To secure their supplies and support ever-growing demand, LVMH and Hermès have raided crocodile farms in Australia over the past ten years, the two companies now owning the majority of them.

During this period, the activity is the most intense, because it is the laying in crocodiles.

About 4,000 eggs are collected from the surrounding nature each year, before being transported to Coolibah, where they are placed in an incubator, until they hatch.

Inside a room where the temperature is constantly kept around 33 degrees, crates full of eggs are stored on shelves separated by a small central aisle.

"They are very sensitive to temperature. At the beginning of the incubation phase, it helps to determine the sex. What interests us is to get males because they grow faster," explains to the AFP Ben Hindle, who runs the two crocodile farms owned by LVMH in Australia.

While inspecting the crates, he sees some babies who have just hatched.

They emit a small repetitive cry.

"It's to call their brothers to come out of their eggs, which they all hatch at the same time," he says.

They are then transferred to hatcheries, in a building as large as a barn: large enclosed tubs partially filled with water, where baby crocodiles are grouped in litters of 30 to 40 for about nine months.

They are fed six times a week, with minced kangaroo meat.

Ben Hindle bends down to grab one and inspect his stomach.

- Ideal small scales -

"The mark on the umbilical cord has healed well, its scales are starting to form," he observes, satisfied.

It is this part of the body that is used in leather goods.

In this area, there is no better than the Australian marine crocodile.

"The skin of their belly contains no bones and it is made up of very small scales, a very feminine pattern, particularly popular for making handbags," explains Ben Hindle.

They spend the third and last year of their life in individual wire-fenced pens, in a large field, to prevent their skin from being bitten or scratched, before being slaughtered - with an electric pistol, like oxen.

Their skin is then sent to Singapore, to a tannery bought by LVMH in 2011, which supplies all of the group's brands with leather.

Despite a constant increase in demand, the use of exotic leathers by the luxury industry is increasingly criticized.

Thursday, three activists from the PETA association, dressed only in a bikini and a crocodile mask, demonstrated in front of the Hermès store in central Sydney.

"For every bag, shoe or belt made with crocodile leather, a very intelligent and sensitive animal is placed in captivity, subjected to a horrible life and multiple sufferings before being killed", denounces Aleesha Jones while removing her mask. .

Big brands, like Chanel, have given up using exotic leathers.

Not LVMH, which for its part "leaves our brands free to use these materials, and our customers to buy them", explains Alexandre Capelli, deputy environmental director of the group.

"From there, we do everything to put in place the best possible practices".

Grahame Webb, who chairs the Crocodile group within the international union for the protection of nature, himself helped the LVMH group to define them.

He defends the commercial exploitation of crocodiles, a compromise he believes necessary to preserve the species, which came close to extinction in the 1960s.

"You will never be able to make crocodiles sympathetic to those who live near them. On the other hand, if you give them an economic value, then those same people will be ready to support them."

Including an act in the Northern Territory, where a study in 2017 estimated the economic benefits generated by the exploitation of crocodiles, in breeding and tourism, at 67 million euros per year.

Globally, luxury leather goods suffered in 2020, due to the pandemic.

But the sector should rebound quickly.

This probably explains the acquisition in November by Hermès of a melon farm, which will eventually become the largest crocodile farm in the country.

More than 50,000 reptiles will be raised there.

© 2021 AFP