How to scientifically manage small and medium-sized poultry farm in Africa
Scientific decision-making and preparation.
Professionalized production in the poultry industry involves dividing chicken farms into different types, each requiring different resources, varying levels of investment, and yielding different economic benefits. Therefore, when starting a small or medium-sized chicken farm, it is necessary to conduct market research, understand the market, and make decisions and analyses on the nature, scale, product quality, capital investment, and various production indicators based on market demand. This lays the foundation for better production and maximizing benefits. Otherwise, blindly starting and producing may lead to poor or even negative results.
First Section: Market Research and Analysis
With the continuous development of the poultry industry, the competition in the poultry industry is intensifying, and it is necessary to increase the intensity of market research on poultry. Correct decisions should be made based on the market situation, and efforts should be made to make production more in line with market requirements in order to achieve better production efficiency.
Content of Market Research
There are many market factors that affect the production and efficiency improvement of the chicken industry, and careful research needs to be conducted to obtain first-hand information in order to analyze, predict, and ultimately make the correct decisions. The specific contents are as follows:
(1) Market Product Demand Survey
Market Capacity Survey
Firstly, conduct a regional market capacity survey. Through the survey, it is beneficial for enterprises to grasp the development scale from the overall strategy and it is the most basic strategy to achieve “production according to sales”. New chicken farms should conduct surveys before construction to determine the scale and nature based on the market situation. For the chicken farms that are currently in production, a survey should generally be conducted once a year to understand the proportion of the enterprise’s products in the market and identify market spaces that can still be occupied. This survey needs to be carried out regularly as it plays a significant role in helping enterprises to discover which strategies are most effective. At the same time, understanding potential markets can provide a basis for project decisions.
Secondly, investigate specific wholesale market sales volume and changes in sales prices. This type of survey can identify changes in market sales volume and prices, find out the reasons, and adjust production direction and sales in a timely manner.
Suitable Product Variety Survey
There are many economic types and varieties of chickens, and there are significant differences in demand for products in different regions, including external features and meat flavors. Surveying suitable product varieties has macro reference value for variety selection and micro value for meeting the needs of different markets in specific sales operations. For example, some places prefer brown eggs, while others prefer white eggs. Some consumers prefer fast-growing large meat chickens, some prefer free-range chickens, and consumers in the southern region of Africa prefer high-quality yellow-feathered meat chickens.
Different sales channels and consumer groups have different quality requirements for products. For example, large supermarkets or high-end consumers require high-quality, green, or organic products, while general market sales or most consumers mainly consume ordinary or pollution-free products.
Suitable Weight Survey
Similar to suitable product varieties, different local markets also have varying requirements for the weight of poultry. For example, in the southwestern regions of Africa, there is a preference for larger meat chicken weights, while in Zimbabwe, there is a preference for heavier meat chickens, and in the Angola region, there is a preference for lighter bamboo silk chickens. Clearly understanding the suitable weight of poultry products in various local markets can provide a basis for adjusting sales flexibly to provide different weight products for different markets. Additionally, understanding the characteristics of suitable weight in different markets can also provide a basis for deepening market development and expanding market space.
(2) Market Product Supply Survey
For breeding companies, the types of chicken products demanded by the market (including eggs, chicken meat, and chicks) are composed of both demand and supply. To achieve operating efficiency, it is not enough to only investigate the demand aspect. Supply-side investigation is also critical.
Local Product Supply Volume
Investigate the predicted output volume of local major production enterprises and free-range households in the next phase. Conducting surveys on these contents is beneficial for preparing sales plans and achieving planned balanced sales.
Input Volume of External Products
Currently, information and transportation are highly developed, and the phenomenon of cross-regional sales is becoming more and more common. This is a natural circulation phenomenon of products that cannot be artificially controlled. When external products have a significant impact on the local market, it is necessary to have a full understanding of their prices and the duration of their source and make a relatively accurate evaluation to determine production scale or adjust production scale.
Situation of related alternative products
Meat products such as chicken, duck, goose, pork, beef, lamb, fish, as well as egg products such as chicken eggs, duck eggs, quail eggs, goose eggs, etc. all have an impact on each other, and it is necessary to understand the sales situation of related meat and egg products.
(3) Market research activities
Competitor research
The content to be investigated includes the advantages of competitor products, the market share of competitors, the production capacity and market plans of competitors, the level of consumer recognition of competitors’ products, defects of competitor products, and consumer requirements not reflected in competitor products.
Sales channel research
Sales channels refer to the channels through which goods enter the consumer market from the production field. Currently, there are mainly two sales channels for live poultry products: production enterprise -> wholesaler -> retailer -> consumer; production enterprise -> slaughterhouse -> retailer -> consumer. There are mainly three sales channels for egg products: production enterprise -> wholesaler -> retailer -> consumer; production enterprise -> wholesaler -> egg processing enterprise; production enterprise -> egg processing enterprise.
(4) Other aspects of research
Market production material investigation, supply and price of feed, fuel, etc., and human resources situation.
