The WSJ recently covered the difficulty farmers face transporting crocodiles and crocodile skins so that they arrive undamaged. The sum received is surprising when you consider that a crocodile handbag, per the article, can easily fetch $50,000:
The animals are both culturally significant and an important income source for indigenous communities in the Outback, who collect the eggs by hand from swamps and incubate them until they’re hatched. Then, the juvenile reptiles are sold to farmers like Mr. Lever, who transport them to farms in less remote areas where they grow for a couple of years before the skins are harvested. A farmer can sell a high-end skin for about $1,000, while an egg can be worth about $35 to a collector. (Farmers also sell the meat, for food, and things such as claws and gall bladders for alternative medicines.)
The article cited that Australia accounts for 60% of the saltwater skin trade because Australian crocs have finer skin patterns than the American alligator. The trade is worth “US$78 million a year in a global crocodile and alligator fashion sector worth up to US$1 billion, according to the Crocodile Farmers Association of the Northern Territory.”