#Ulog01 POULTRY AS A BUSINESS

#PoultryAsABusiness
In every business enterprise, it is always said that the production is not ended until
the goods have reached the final consumer. This clearly underscores the fact that merely
producing poultry birds and the other products is simply not enough because marketing is
needed to make the cycle complete. Marketing here simply means finding out what
customers want and supply it immediately at a profit.
For a long time, marketing has not been critically considered by most industry
players as important aspect of the poultry business. All attention is focused on the
production aspect whilst marketing is relegated to the background. Customers and
consumers however expect poultry to be a constant product, not changing with season,
time of day or severity of rains.
Marketing of poultry and poultry products is subject to the laws of demand and
supply. An over supply will lead to a fall in price and profitability whereas an
undersupply will lead to a high price and high profit to the disadvantage of valued
customers. However, in a situation of competition the customer may purchase other
products rather than the traditional product. This means consumers can not be loyal
forever. There is a standard of quality which the poultry market demands. Customers and
consumers will not return to buy more if the product is unwholesome. At the point of
purchase, quality relates to presentation much more than anything else. An assessment
of product quality by customers and consumers may be fairly subjective if not almost
unreasonable. In the poultry marketing practice, customers and consumers may be
attracted by the colour of the meat. They may even look at the colour of the wrapper before they buy the product. Marketing of eggs for example becomes a problem when transporting them from
one town to another in vehicles. Breakages as well as cracks appear on the eggs as a
result of driving errors on rough roads. If this happens consumers and customers will
refuse to buy the product. This is a marketing problem which Farms should
address.