Good meat turns red when exposed to air, but bad meat turns black. If the conditions are the same, you should know that this state reflects the way the birds are fed.
Ostrich marketing
Creating an ostrich farm is easy. Making the investment profitable requires how to evaluate the ostrich products.
The best advice for you can be to meet with the farmers of other regions and find out how and at what price they sell their products, and to check the existing demand as a general part of the processing and marketing farm. Consider .
live birds
Some may breed live birds for sale. It is true that this work helps to return the capital in a short period of time and depending on the country and place of breeding, it can have a high income, but what happens if the live bird market is saturated and there is no more demand for live birds. Have your opinion. You should also check who is buying the birds and at what price. This is the commercialization stage.
Ostrich killing equipment
There may be a time when there are no buyers for your birds and at this time you have to do the slaughtering and marketing of the product yourself. It is necessary to know the cost of slaughter and the nearest slaughterhouse, and if your unit is large, set up such equipment yourself.
Most of the farmers in South Africa have such equipment and their activities are based on quotas. By purchasing a quota, everyone has the right to kill birds. You should know if the slaughterhouse is approved by the European Union.
Meanwhile, the place that has the highest demand for ostrich meat (prosperous European market) will be opened to you. In order to reach bigger markets, it is useful to work collectively with the farmers of the region and possibly to form a cooperative.
Marketing of ostrich meat products
The problem with meat is that it is a perishable product in its fresh state. Ostrich meat should be sold as soon as possible, if it is vacuum packed, its storage period is 21 days. But if frozen, the meat can be stored for up to one year.
Ostrich skin marketing
The ostrich skin market is very unstable. At some times of the year, no one buys skin, but at other times, they stand in line for skin. Don’t worry if you have done things right, you will have a salable product.
Skins must have the correct shape and be properly maintained to have the necessary value. If something goes wrong, you won’t have a product to sell. Gone are the days when everything related to ostrich skin was valuable. For example, it should be said that skins should never be frozen and should be kept at a temperature of 4 to 10 degrees Celsius.
The demand for leather in the market is the leather of big feet from the knee to the tip of the foot. Some cooperatives fall into the trap of thinking that they will earn more by tanning leather and selling the final product. Do not be deceived and do not do this.
After you have spent a lot of money and endured the constant hassles of dealing with tanners and processors, you should think about your sales. Sell the used salt skin and get your money without any trouble.