Ostrich Farming Growth Worldwide

Towards the end of the 1980's, the ambition to develop ostrich farming outside of South Africa became more intense. Promises were made, showing high returns, based on the sales of ostrich eggs, chicks, and grown birds to other farmers. Progression of the growth of ostrich farming has gone through four clearly identifiable stages.

In the first phase, the countries possessing the necessary infrastructure for the production, processing and marketing began ostrich farming at a commercial-scale, growing quickly to capacity. A number of countries were included in this phase, including South Africa, Israel, Zimbabwe and Namibia. Ostrich eggs were exported from Zimbabwe, Namibia and Kenya. The introduction of Israel to this phase was the first country outside of southern Africa in modern times. The ostrich eggs used in the initial Israeli ostrich farming venture were smuggled out in a suitcase.

Avenue Q Pantages

In the second phase, we see countries like USA, Canada, Australasia, UK and other northern European countries import foundation stocks from the original countries that still had ostriches in the wild. Other countries soon followed this trend, including China, Japan, Malaysia, Thailand and the Philippines. The stock imported by these nations came from varied sources of genetic diversity, reaching from South Africa to Namibia and Zimbabwe, and right up to Tanzania.

In the third phase we see a further spread of the original foundation stock ostriches to even more countries in Europe. After the initial countries mentioned in the first two phases failed to move from foundation stock building to commercial production, they sold off their stocks to new countries, including Spain, Portugal, Italy and Greece, and then also to Brazil. From their the ostrich stocks moved even further afield into eastern Europe and into the Middle East, and also further into South America, to Mexico, Peru and Chile. Ostrich stocks then moved even further into Nigeria in Africa and Pakistan, and increasing areas where they are still working on establishing commercial poultry production.

We are currently in the fourth phase of seeing the spread of ostrich farming as a viable commercial enterprise. It is now time to put into practice, and to capitalize on that which we have learned till this point. We are at a time where we need to observe the development of the already established commercial meat production species. The current competition for ostrich meat comes from pigs, poultry (especially chickens, but also turkey, ducks, guinea fowl and other poultry), cattle, sheep and goats. Pig and poultry farming on a commercial-scale have become increasingly efficient in their production methods.

If ostrich farming enterprises want to grow to this full potential, care needs to be taken to learn from the competition meat protein producing enterprises. They have made great strides in developing feeds for maximum efficiency. They have made great strides in marketing efficiently. They have also made great strides in managing their production ever more efficiently. There is much ostrich farming enterprises can gain by looking at these models, and applying the knowledge to their own farming practices and management skills.

Ostrich farming can also achieve these efficient results, if the ostrich farming enterprises exploit this knowledge to its full potential.

Ostrich Farming Growth Worldwide

For more information on ostrich farming, check out this ebook entitled "How to Start An Ostrich Farm".

Alan B. Stables is a freelance writer on alternative agriculture, has organized the World Ostrich Congress in Madrid, Spain in 2005 and has also been a guest speaker in Brazil, China, Egypt, Italy, Latvia and Spain, on how to market ostrich produce for maximum returns. His leaflet "The Information Guide on How To Remove, Store, Transport and Grade Your Ostrich Skins" has become an Ostrich Industry Standard that has been translated and used in many countries today. Alan is also a founding member of the World Ostrich Association.