Chicken farming in the Philippines is generally a fairly safe way to make money. The business itself is not a complex operation, and there is a huge demand for poultry products in the country. One of the fastest growing poultry farming niches in the Philippines is contract poultry farming.
Investors love it because of the level of technical support and marketing that they receive from the poultry integrators or contract poultry farming companies. However, the barrier to entry is generally high and investors need tens of thousands of dollars as well as ample land to set up the poultry housing and facilities.
Even for a relatively efficient business operation, it still takes investors anywhere from three to four years to break even in a contract poultry farming enterprise. This is largely due to the spillage and inefficiency that occurs in the contract poultry farming enterprise which is generally fraught with various management challenges.
Tips for Maximizing Returns of Contract Broiler Farming in the Philippines
Below are some tips on how you can the maximize the return of your contract poultry farming enterprise in the Philippines and boost your margins:
- Get your own hatchery and incubators: If you will be raising broilers either as an independent producer or a contract farmer, the easiest way to cut down on chick placement costs is by buying your own hatchery unit. Having your own hatching or incubation unit cuts down the cost of chick placement or acquisition by more than 60%.
- Have your own poultry abattoir: This still applies to independent producers that will be processing and packaging their own poultry meat. Having your own abattoir will cut down the cost of slaughter by more than 80% from P6 to P1 per chicken.
- Have your own retail outlets: Having your own retail outlets where you can sell your chickens directly to the market will increase your margins considerably. One way of doing this is by having your own network Lechon Manok stands where you can sell your poultry.
- Producing your own chicken feeds: Poultry feeding costs account for more than 67% of the cost of poultry production. However, by formulating your own poultry feeds in-house you can cut feeding costs by as much as 40%. However, the setup cost for large-scale poultry feed mills is usually high. You will also need extra expertise to operate and manage the poultry feed mill.
- Use solar panels to power your poultry farm: If you are running a large scale commercial broiler production unit, you are going to incur high power costs. However, installing a renewable energy source such as solar panels can help cut down on the costs considerably, over the long term.
