Fiji National University to study rural poultry sustainability

Fiji National University’s College of Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry is going to set up a research program into the sustainability of poultry production in rural communities. Fiji is dominated by several large companies that are supplied by small holders.

The Department of Animal Science, having written a proposal on the research topic, has put together a brief overview of the industry from available texts.

According to the overview, the commercial poultry industry is dominated by two broiler companies — Goodman Fielder (Crest) and Rooster Chicken — with 60% and 40% of the market share respectively.
The egg market is controlled by Ram Sami and Sons which has 85% of the market share.

The overview from the Department of Animal Science also reveals that Reddy’s and Imam Ali Halal control the formal duck sector with 5% and 20% of the market respectively.

These producers have their own hatcheries with Crest operating its own large feed plant that also produces dairy feed sold direct to supermarkets and hotels.

The big companies operate out-grower schemes — small poultry units — to which the company provides chicks and feed and then buys back and markets the products. Crest has about 85 of these smallholder growers that produce about one third of their total output.

“Most of the poultry farming is in the Central Division, which has the majority of the egg producers and hatcheries and produces about 65 per cent of the broilers, while the Western Division produces 35%,” said an FNU statement.

“Figures show Fiji is 97% self-sufficient in poultry meat and 100% self-sufficient in eggs.

“The industry is protected by a 27% duty on imported poultry and eggs. Imports of poultry meat amount to about $3 million (€1.3 million) to $4 million (€1.8 million) per year and comprises mainly chicken portions, often reportedly dumped by NZ due to their low price.”

Source: Fiji Times