Good day people.
I would like to add value to broiler rearing by venturing into the chicken processing value chain. This desire stemmed from the fact the my live bird offtakers (chicken processors) buy on credit and 100% of the time, they don't pay within the stipulated timeframe. Even worse, they transfer their liabilities and losses to you and as a result, you may not get anything from these agents of satan.

I have suspended poultry temporarily becuase of this and I have made up my mind never to sell on credit to these chronic debtors called processors/ offtakers especially those ones around obafemi owode area in ogun state and one GibsonX farms in Ibadan.

"Necessity is the mother of invention". Hence, I have plans to have a mini slaughter facility in a city. My co-farmers in the struggle, help me with ideas. I am still fairly new to poultry but I'm learning very fast.

From experience, starting a new value chain comes with new problems, issues and nuances. Please I would like to understand the challenges with chicken processing, cold room storage and blast freezing. I heard cold rooms have problems with 3 phase power supply. Should I go for freezers rather than cold room for a start? Also, can I use an ice block machine in lieu of the standard blast freezer for a start? Blast freezers and cold rooms are very expensive. I'm looking for a retrofit solution that I can deploy for a start. But I don't mind getting a standard blast freezer and cold room if requires that. I just want to start small and minimize my risk exposure as we all know that the poultry industry is no longer what it used to be.

Your advice would be greatly appreciated.

P.S: I have a 5000 capacity poultry pen already.