How To Start Poultry and Chicken Farming : Value Addition

Value addition is the process of adding value to a product or service through special processing, marketing or manufacturing. Value addition is often driven by the need to offer more convenience to the customer. 

Poultry is one product that you can add value to everything, and even offer a value-added service based on it. With poultry, you can add value to meat, eggs, feathers and even other parts that are usually thrown away. You can offer value-added services for example restaurants that primarily serve poultry products, poultry parks, training on poultry etc. 

When you add value to the product, you increase the perceived value of the product. When adding value to chicken a farmer gives more value to chicken and its products before offering it to the customers. Customers will pay more for it. 

Advantages of Value Addition.

• Adding value to chicken, especially to meat and eggs increases its life span
• The increasing value increases the convenience to consumers
• It mitigates losses that you can go through while trying to sell such as meat going stale
• Value addition creates a more significant market opportunity and can easily satisfy the demand for products

When to Add Value.

If you want to have a competitive edge over your business rivals, then it’s time to add value to your chicken. It will benefit you in reducing losses from chicken meat going bad and your eggs breaking. Furthermore, Value addition will also reduce waste tremendously. You will be able to make money from simple things including feathers and chicken waste.

What Chicken products can you Add Value to?

1. Eggs

Value is added to eggs by breaking them. The liquid then undergoes filtration, mixing, and stabilization and is finally blended. After this, it is pasteurized to ensure that any pathogens are killed before being cooled into liquid form 

After that, you can opt to dry it into powder form or freeze it.  Egg powder can last up to four years. Furthermore, it is easy to use since all you need to do is mix it with water. Bakers are increasingly embracing the use of powdered eggs in their trade.

2. By-products

You can add value to chicken by-products such as feet and heads by packaging it and selling it as pet food. You can get an extra coin by drying chicken feathers. They are a good fibre source and can be used to make pillows and cushions.

Chicken excretions are a good source of manure. You will not miss a farmer or two who will buy the organic fertilizer from your chicken farm. You can dry chicken blood and make money from selling it as a fish meal.

3. Chicken Meat Parts

Give your customers a wide range of choices. You can give them chicken parts including gizzards, drumsticks, necks, thighs, wings, and breasts. You can pack them and get them to the shelves as either fresh or frozen cut-ups.

4. Semi-Cooked chicken

You can spoil your consumers for choice by putting semi-cooked chicken strips on the shelves. Just ensure that they are flavoured and seasoned. Your market will include hotels, schools, hospitals, and supermarkets.

5. Fully cooked chicken

You will need to be an owner of choma joint, eaterie or restaurant to be able to serve your customers thoroughly grilled chicken.

6. Marinated chicken parts

Marinated chicken parts have increasingly become popular. Most customers especially the chefs from restaurants like marinated chicken. They find them juicy with a great aromatic taste. You will have saved the chefs lots of time in marinating the chicken because it takes up to 72 hours.

7. Boneless chicken products

Boneless chicken is popular among the middle class. It is an extensive market, and you need to tap it. You can also package the bones and sell them. They are great in making certain dishes, especially soup.

Value-added Chicken Business Ideas

1. Chicken restaurants.

As earlier mentioned, the best way to sell fully cooked chicken is by starting a restaurant. It is a great chicken business idea. You will have a direct market for your chicken all year round.

2. Hatchery.

Developing a hatchery is another great business idea. Instead of buying chicks from other hatcheries, you hatch your own and even get to sell the day-old chicks. You can also decide to teach other farmers how to rear chickens. You will have extra cash in your pockets.

3. Poultry parks

Another great business idea is when you choose to establish a poultry park. You can rear ducks, layers, and broilers and have people pay to come and see your poultry park.

You can choose to venture into the value-added chicken business or to add value to your chicken. Both if executed well, will make you a profit. Be prepared to dedicate yourself fully and work hard to achieve your dreams. Nothing comes easy!

We will be adding more content to this article to cover:-

1. Specific Poultry Products.

2. Requirements for setting up your chicken products value addition plant. 

3. Regulations.