Cobb Focus Three 2011 (English)

D I S T R I B U T O R P R O F I L E : K & N ’ s , P A K I S T A Ncontinued from page 1In 2001 K&N’s returned to broiler growingwith larger scale, controlled-environmentfacilities, which laid the foundation forthis type of production in Pakistan.Up to then most producers had less than5,000 broilers per shed, fed them manuallyand usually housed birds in thatched roofsheds.Currently K&N’s has six broiler growingfacilities, each with capacity for 250-300,000 birds. The Cobb 500 broilers aregrown to 36 days, averaging 1.87 kg witha 1.75 to 1.85 feed conversion ratio.For all the farms and other operationsback-up generators are essential as powerbreakdowns occur regularly, can beunpredictable and last six to eight hours attimes.K&N’s s t r o n g c o m m i t m e n t t ocooperation and industry developmentencouraged new entrepreneurs, pushing updemand for day-old broiler chicks. Thislead to increased placement of parentstock, so that in 2007 Pakistan was one ofthe top ten poultry producers in the worldwith over eight million broiler parent stockproducing more than 800 million birds ayear.The expansion had also been triggeredby high prices following the drastic dropin production in 2004/05 when Pakistansuffered badly from bird flu.With over production in 2007/8 and areported bird flu case in a remote area,poultry prices crashed once again. Add tothis a 68% increase in feed cost and heavylosses were made with a 40% reduction inproduction in 2008/09.Day-old chick price at the end of 2008dropped to (Pakistani Rupees) Rs. 1-4(2008 Rs 80 = US$1) with some breedingcompanies even giving away day-oldbroiler chicks against a production cost ofover Rs 20 per chick. Consequently, almost40% of producers closed, reducing thesupply of day-old chicks and increasingtheir price. As demand recovered there wasa shortage of parent stock.This led in 2008 to K&N’s reaching anagreement to become a Cobb grandparentfranchise producing Cobb 500 parent stockfor their own breeding programme andsupplying other breeding companies tohelp rebuild the industry.“The decision was made after splithousetrials with both Cobb andcompetitor breeds, assessing parent stockperformance, broiler feed conversions andgrowth rates,” says Khalil Sattar, chairmanand chief executive of K&N’s.“We discovered the closest internationalcompetitor of Cobb required superior2Top, K&N’s processing plant; bottom, itsgrandparent farm near Abbottabadquality pellets and high density feed whichcould not be readily and extensively madeavailable in the country with the marginalnature of nutrition,” says Adil Sattar,executive director of K&N’s.“Broilers of other breeds did not competewell as we found the Cobb 500 broiler tobe the most cost effective. On the breedingside, Cobb parent stock performed as wellas any other and consequently we choseCobb.“We feel that with Cobb 500 in Pakistanwe can contribute positively towardsenabling farmers to produce a live kg ofchicken at least cost and in the mostefficient manner.”In 2011/12 K&N’s expects to produce 80million layer and broiler chicks.In the 1960’s and 1970’s, obtaining safe,reliable sources of poultry feed was aninsurmountable challenge in Pakistan. Thisled Khalil to set up his own feed mill toproduce feed for K&N’s operations atKarachi in 1971. With the growing need offeed for the integrated productionoperations in Central Punjab province andNorthern areas of the country, a feed millestablished by a multi-national companyat Lahore, was acquired by K&N’s to takeadvantage of low cost feed ingredientsavailable in the Central part of Pakistan.The growth of commercial poultryproduction through the decades changedthe mindset of consumers towards farmraised broilers and eggs, helped by lowerprices and greater availability. Today Desicontinued on page 3