Field Series: The Feed Strain

The core product of our brand is Chickens and we aim to contribute to The Sustainable Development Goal- Zero Hunger. Our platform The Chicken Farm allows us to interact with various businesses of different sizes across the entire value chain for producing chickens, from those who make inputs such as feed and drugs available to the farms themselves and even food vendors who use chickens to make amazing delicacies. We appreciate the effort these various persons and businesses are putting into growing their businesses and contributing to ending hunger, their efforts no matter how little when taken in full consideration is a step closer to achieving Goal 2 of the SDGs.

Across the entire value chain, the lack of corn has hit businesses and consequently livelihoods hard. Corn is essential in the production of feed for chickens, so its scarcity is causing a hike in prices in feed and forcing owners of poultry farms to develop new feed rations to adapt to the rising cost, in very severe cases, smaller farmers that cannot weather through the galloping cost of feed are forced to sell off their birds or suffer huge losses that can be damaging to the future of their businesses and/or livelihoods. It also introduces a new instability for our farmers and everybody across the value chain as it will result in an increase in the price of chicken per kilogram. 

The questions, can the consumer afford the new price? Will consumers be willing to pay? become real and quite literally nightmares and horrors to the business owner at any stage of the value chain. We must also recognize the corn farmers whom the lockdown to restrain the spread of coronavirus within the country affected adversely their production as the lockdown was in force during their production season.

Here at The Chicken Universe we recognize and appreciate how this dynamic plays out. To support all those across the value chain who have been affected in any way by the lockdown, the galloping prices in corn and feed, the fear of shrinking income of consumers as a result of the economic contraction, we are dedicating our Field Series to you all. In coming weeks, we will reach out to various players small, medium and big to discuss how they are coping with the realities with the aim to seeing that we can share our experiences. We believe that sharing such experiences will foster our growth as individual businesses and collectively help us as a sector to weather this period.

Stay strong, be innovative, appreciate the people who make up your business ecosystem and deliver the best of your product (chickens). We will win this one too.