Issue No. 39 – June, 2006
1. Avian Influenza Update
2. The Future of Animal Agriculture in North America
3. Economics of Production, Processing and Marketing
4. Animal Protein Consumption
5. Impact of Government Policies on consumer demand
6. Annual General Meeting/Director Nominations
7. Contributions
1. Avian Influenza Update
Egypt
Egypt has been badly hit with a reported 80% of their poultry either infected by the H5N1 virus or culled in the process of eradicating the disease. Egypt is also one of the few countries to experience a number of human cases.
Prof. Hesham Khalifa has reported investigations were carried out on 4 ostrich farms, 2 in the immediate vicinity of intensive poultry farms in an area declared by government to be infected by H5N1. All birds in this area, except ostrich, were culled – more than 100,000.
Samples were taken from ostriches, including birds Prof. Khalifa reported as in extremely poor condition with the loss of 3 breeders and 5 yearling ostriches within 7 days. The important finding reported by Prof. Khalifa is that no bird sampled tested positive to any H5 Avian Flu strain.
Editor comment: Any members who have similar experiences, can you please share them to enable us to keep members informed.
Saudi Arabia
Rayan Hayder has sent us the following report:
To date AI has not been detected in Saudi Arabia and the Saudi Ministry of Agriculture is keeping close control of all poultry and ostrich projects to ensure that any potential threat of an outbreak will be quickly detected. Vets from the Ministry are constantly monitoring the bio-security procedures in the farms and regularly collecting samples to test for all AI strains. The results from these tests so far have all been negative.
Editor comment: Please remember that we are dependent on our members reporting news to be able to pass onto our membership as we cannot be in all places.
2. The Future of Animal Agriculture in North America
This is the title of a long report that has been produced by The Farm Foundation. The report discusses agriculture in Mexico, The United States and Canada. The report has been put together by a very large team made up of industry, government and academic leaders. The document can be viewed at: http://www.farmfoundation.org/projects/04-32Reportrelease.htm
This report details the challenges facing the existing livestock industries in North America. Farm Foundation initiated this project to compile a comprehensive look at the opportunities and challenges facing animal agriculture in North America today. They also emphasise that it will be how industry, government and academia use the information that will help shape the future of this industry in North America. So if this document is aimed at the North American animal agriculture, why is it of interest to Ostrich producers around the globe?
To be successful in Ostrich production, the issues discussed in this document need to be understood as we are operating in a global market today. The document provides an excellent insight into the industry we are working in – livestock production. Many of the points covered have been covered by our newsletters over the years and this document confirms their importance.
3. Economics of Production, Processing and Marketing
There are a number of factors discussed under this heading that are important for our fledgling ostrich to understand and the discussions raised are not confined to North American Agriculture:
Major Structural Change
Quote: Every facet of the animal food chain – from genetics to retail and food service outlets – is adjusting to the rapid pace of change. End quote
This sums up the messages our newsletters have been highlighting and important as the development of the Ostrich industry has taken place during this rapid transitional process.
Quote: Production once dominated by independent, family-based, small-scale firms is now led by large firms that are tightly aligned across the production and distribution chain. Contracts and other types of marketing arrangements are increasingly important across nearly every market level— from input supply and seed stock to finished food product markets. End quote
The development of the larger production and distribution chains has been driven by the need to produce food at lower prices to service volume customers that are extremely demanding in their requirements. The volume customers are the large supermarket chains and food service chains whose market share has grown dramatically over the last 10 – 20 years. These same chains are now increasing their presence in developing countries.
Smaller and independent family-based farms and firms have been increasingly battling to achieve economies of scale to remain competitive. In many countries the development of ostrich production has been dominated by the sale of small numbers of birds to start up operations without any infrastructure to support these small operations.
Quote: The traditional production and marketing firms and linkages still exist, but are gravitating to niches for differentiated products that may command a premium from some consumers. As the industry has become more industrialized, specialized and managerially intense, location options have expanded beyond traditional production regions. End Quote
Some examples of niche markets in livestock production are:
Organic
Angus Beef
Free Range
Kobe Beef
Parma Ham
Ostrich, while our production volume is low, can only supply small niche markets. The success of operating in niche markets is to ensure that the product is of the highest quality in order to achieve that premium price Niche markets are willing to pay. That additional price is required when unable to operate to economies of scale that are possible for the mainstream specie and larger operators.
4. Animal Protein Consumption
The report references the increasing demand for animal protein that we have discussed in earlier news letters.
Quote: The demand for meat and other animal based foods is largely related to income and consumer tastes and preferences. Two fundamental trends affect demand for animal based products:
In developed countries, consumer tastes and preferences change, but total demand grows relatively slowly – see chart below. While the demand has shifted for specific products, total demand has grown at about the rate of population growth.
The changing demand for specific meat products results from concerns about diet and health, functional characteristics of products such as convenience, food safety, and perceived values associated with the place or techniques of production.
More dynamic growth in demand for animal based protein results from the fact that incomes are rising in many developing economies with large populations. The rapid increase in per-capita income, particularly in China, has generated a significant increase in per-capita meat consumption. Similar income and consumption trends are occurring in India, Indonesia, Chile and other developing countries of Asia and Latin America. End quote
5. Impact of Government Policies on consumer demand
The report references the importance of government policies on consumer demand, such as:
5.1 Government Nutrition Advice
Heart disease, diabetes and obesity are becoming major issues in first world countries. This is leading to advice on diet; recently there has been an increasing shift on the advice given and this does have an impact on the demand for particular foods. The various industries then have to respond to those changes in consumer demand.
The British Domesticated Ostrich Association (BDOA) can report a direct experience on this. The BDOA recently published an article in a magazine read by the British government ministers and senior advisors. On the day of publication we were approached to write a further 2 page article for a wide circulation review publication. They have ordered the article to be placed alongside a report from DEFRA (The Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs) that will be discussing healthy eating and agricultural related environmental issues.
The reason for the approach is that our government recognise Ostrich as fitting into their current nutritional advice to eat unprocessed food and low fat meat and would like to encourage increased consumption of ostrich. In addition they recognise the environmental benefits as a result of the feed efficiency of Ostrich and alfalfa, which is a major component of their diet.
5.2 Malnutrition in Asia and The Pacific
The WOA has a number of members from this region. All are driven by belief in the potential of ostrich to be an efficient producer of meat protein. At the other end of the scale the FAO (Food and Agriculture Organisation of the United Nations) has recently called for redoubling efforts and investments to overcome malnutrition in Asia and the Pacific. The full report article can be viewed at: http://www.thepoultrysite.com/LatestNews/Default.asp?AREA=LatestNews&Display=9433
The article references quotes from the FAO referencing 35% of the world’s undernourished population residing in South Asia, with the prevalence of underweight, stunting and wasting the highest in the world today.
The article states that the developing countries in the region now have the world’s highest growth rates for the production and consumption of food derived from livestock. They quote the growth in food and agriculture production helping to raise the incomes of farmers and the wages of unskilled labourers. The graphic outlining an agriculture cluster Figure 1 in Newsletter 31(http://www.world-ostrich.org/member/news31.htm), illustrates how a strong agriculture economy can benefit many people.
Quote: “Only nine years separate us from 2015, the date by which the world's leaders pledged to halve hunger and extreme poverty. Despite this commitment, the state of hunger and malnutrition in the world remains as distressing as in 1996, when the World Food Summit was held. At this half-way stage, it now seems that unless we redouble our efforts in the next years, our objective will not be attained until 2150”, concluded Dr Diouf. End quote
Source: Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) - 20th May 2006.
Ostrich production does have a contributing role to play in helping to provide meat protein efficiently.
Can we meet the challenge to gear up production to produce sufficient volume to provide a meaningful contribution in both these situations?
6. Annual General Meeting
This year’s annual general meeting will be held on 19th September. All notices regarding place and time will be sent out closer to the time. For now we ask you to make a note of this date in your diaries.
Daryl Holle, Craig Culley and Rayan Hayder are the directors due to retire this year and all offer themselves for re-election. If you would like to serve as a director or nominate someone to serve, please inform Craig. We are currently one director short following the resignation of Dessi Daskalova last year.
7. Contributions
As always we ask for contributions. The WOA offers channels of communication for all participants to enable our fledgling industry to share experiences and develop strategies.
Any comments or suggestions, please post either to the members list [email protected] or Craig at [email protected]
Ask not only what the WOA can do for you but also
What can I do for the WOA?
Copyright © of the World Ostrich Association, All Rights Reserved |