January 11, 2007

India's Suguna Poultry to launch layer breed next month

Suguna, a major integrated poultry company in India, is making its foray into the layer segment with a new layer breed in February 2007.

The company would launch commercial marketing of "Lohman" bred layer chickens into the country's traditionally strong layer markets of Namakkal, Hyderabad and Vijayawada by the second week of February, said Mr B. Soundarajan, Managing Director of Suguna Poultry Farm Ltd.

The breed, from Germany, was a high yielding breed which has a low feed-conversion ratio and lays bigger eggs compared to others in the market.

Suguna Poultry has already set up its breeder farm for the "Lohman" chicken production at Hiriyur near Bangalore. The company is also planning to get into the "designer" egg market targeting health-conscious consumers.

More significantly, Suguna Poultry is seeking to get into the corn growing business, to have more control over its feed sources. The company, which is expanding broiler production from five million birds a week to 6.5 million next year, would require 1 million tonnes of maize yearly, up from the present 600,000 to 700,000 tonnes.

The company is looking into contract cultivation in Karnataka's traditional corn areas of Davangere Shimoga and two other places.