Financial Times

Bairaha’s Rs 100 mln broiler breeder Grand Parent Farm and Hatchery
The local poultry industry's vulnerability to Avian Influenza and cost increases linked to international currency depreciation could be reduced significantly as a result of a landmark joint venture launched in Colombo last week by Bairaha Farms Ltd (BFL), Sri Lanka's pioneer poultry breeder.

The company formally launched a Rs 100 million project in partnership with Hybro B.V. of the Netherlands to operate the country's most advanced Grand Parent Broiler Breeder farm and hatchery, an initiative that will produce Hybro's world renowned PG+ parent stock locally, supplying the needs of local broiler breeders and generating a sizeable saving in foreign exchange.

Fortune GP Farms, which is a new venture, has been set up in a remote 100-acre isolated piece of land off Dambulla; and in a separate, 10-acre piece of land, a state-of-the-art hatchery has also been set up. It is capable of producing 70 percent of the local poultry industry's requirements of parent stock, most of which up to now had to be imported.

"The availability of locally hatched broiler parent breeder chicks will lead to savings for the poultry farmers since they would not have to pay import duty, L/C charges, customs levies and at the same time do not have to face the hassle of clearing the cargo from customs," said Yakooth Naleem, Managing Director of Fortune GP Farms (Lanka) Ltd in a statement. "The conditions of the chicks supplied would be much better because of the shorter distance the chicks have to travel in Sri Lanka when they buy them from us as opposed to importing them. Additionally purchasing from our hatchery would enable better production planning since the breeder farmers will be assured of getting their quantity without the quantity ordered being reduced by the high mortality that is generally associated with imported chicks."

This BOI-approved joint venture supported by the Government of the Netherlands is also expected to bring about a reduction in the price of parent breeder broiler chicks since buyers will no longer be burdened with payment of duty, can be certain about the condition of the stock, and will have access to speedy technical support.

Back to Business