It is uncommon to find a household that does not consume poultry meat, most especially chicken meat. However, despite the high demand for poultry meat across the globe, the quantities produced have not met market demand. This is also the case in Nigeria and other parts of Africa. Households, eateries, groceries and meat industries are unable to get the required quantities required for consumption or production. Surprisingly, even when market demand for poultry meat has not been met, many farmers still complain of low patronage. Before the current and future market demands can be met, poultry farmers need to adopt effective strategies and best practices in the industry.
First, don’t start production until you have surveyed your market and know what they want and in what quantity. Also, get the contact details of potential buyers and top buyers in your locality and ensure that you let them know you will be selling to them soon. If possible, ask them the quantity they would be able to buy from you and note it down.
You should properly schedule your production such that you have matured animals during festive periods such as Christmas, Easter, Thanksgiving, Salah, New year, Wedding peak period etc. The sole reason for this is that there will be higher demand for chicken or turkey meat in these periods. Consequently, you should be having more customers to buy your old layers, broilers or turkeys.
Form farmers group with other farmers or join existing ones. This will give you more exposure and an opportunity to connect with other farmers. Your co-farmers or colleagues could link you up with their own customers and you will have more people to buy your products. Additionally, one advantage of forming farmers groups or cooperatives is that you will be able to agree on market price and also engage in collective sales.
Don’t underestimate the power of social media. That is why a farmer should be able to make effective use of social networking sites such as Facebook, Twitter, Instagram etc. These networks are good platform to advertise your products and/or services and bring more customers to your business. So leverage the power of social media or network to give your farm or business more exposure as well as get more sales.
Another idea you could apply when you have excess chickens or turkeys on your farm is to slaughter, process and package them to sell to consumers. Slaughtering and processing is not a difficult task. You only need to carry out this processing in a very hygienic place and with uncontaminated equipment. Have your refrigerators running and store processed meats in them. Read more about this idea
One last and important thing is that you must not produce more than what the market demands. This is the reason why a market survey is important. If you don’t conduct a market survey, it might be difficult to know and understand the pattern or behaviour of the market, especially for your locality. And if you are unable to sell your chickens at the right time, then you are already incurring losses.
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