Workshop on Broiler Supply Chain - Mapping the Supply Chain of Broiler Chicken in Mauritius, to assess the effects of external threats

Mrs Brinda Ramaswamy, the principal investigator and investigators Dr Harris Neeliah and Mr Kamlesh Boodhoo presented the research findings of an MRC funded project on the broiler supply chain on 11 Oct 2013 at the MRC, Ebene. The half day workshop was attended by about 40 people from a range of stakeholders, namely the private sector ( FAIL, INNODIS, LFL, AVIPRO, etc) the Government services ( STATISTICS OFFICE), and  AREU among others. In the discussion session, some points raised were namely: the possible impact of liberalisation of the import of chicken meat, the food safety of locally sold chicken, the waste disposal systems of the poultry industry, the need for veterinary inspection of chicken meat at slaughter houses, the impact of non specific diseases caused by E.Coli, Campylobacter was stressed, the illegal slaughtering of chicken, the price spikes of the feed ingredients.

Mrs B.Ramasawmy and Mr K.Boodhoo of the Faculty of Agriculture, in absentia Dr Neeliah

The principal investigator, Mrs B. Ramasawmy being interviewed by the local broadcasting news agency (MBC)

A resume of the findings can be read below.

Mapping the Supply Chain of Broiler Chicken in Mauritius, to assess the effects of external threats

Mauritius is self sufficient in chicken meat with a local production of 47,200 tonnes in 2012. The market is increasingly moving towards a processed chicken one to cater for reading to cook/convenience food market. The industry operates in a dynamic environment, and is thus exposed to external threats which can disrupt the broiler chicken supply chain (BCSC).

The BCSC consists of various types of producers with different cost structures, production and marketing systems and have different coping strategies to those threats. However, the BCSC is not fully documented. For this reason, this study was carried out to map out the BCSC  and to assess the impacts of external threats on the supply chain.

The supply chain is divided into several categories of actors ranging from those at the production level, intermediaries at the distribution level; input suppliers, and support institutions. There are different types of business linkages that exist along the broiler supply chain. In the case of backyard and small producers, they generally had verbal contracts with traders, while the governance structure differed significantly for medium and large producers that were producing for industrial producers, and is largely governed by contractual agreements.

The main threats that pose serious risks to the sustainability of the poultry production are (a) price volatility of feed ingredients, especially maize and soyabean, (b) diseases outbreaks, (c) dumping of cheap poultry products and (d) environmental issues associated with poultry rearing. The various stakeholders have different coping strategies depending on their position in the supply chain. Those more at risks are the industrial and vertically integrated producer due to high assets fixity. However, the future for the chicken industry is promising as it is resilient to external threats. In order to maintain the competitiveness of the poultry industry and to maintain bio security level of the industry some recommendations related to feeds, environmental regulations, biosecurity, food safety standards market analysis, are made.