World Ostrich Association Newsletter No. 106
January, 2012

Included in this edition:
A Happy New Year to All our Members
Ostrich Production Survey - follow up report from British Colombia
Editor Comments on Report
South Africa - Avian Influenza update

A Happy New Year to All our Members
On behalf of all your directors, I would like to take this opportunity to wish you a Happy and Successful 2012.

Ostrich Production Survey - Follow up Report from British Colombia
The professor in charge of the Ostrich Production Survey discussed in last month’s newsletter passed our discussions onto Stewart Paulson.  Stewart was the poultry industry development specialist with the BC Ministry of Agriculture for 22 years and retired March 2011. His major emphasis with the Ministry was on the supply managed poultry commodities, but he was also responsible for monitoring the specialty bird industries with respect to their development progress. 

Stewart returned with comments that many of us can identify with.  He has given me permission to publish in this month’s newsletter.   This is his report:

A Short History of the British Colombia Ostrich Industry
Stewart G Paulson
The BC Ostrich Association rose from virtually nothing to a growing and potentially valuable industry in the early 1990's. There was strong optimism about its potential to be a viable profitable industry. The initial entrants to BC ostrich farming did an excellent job of marketing their birds as breeders to other producers who saw the same opportunity in selling breeding stock. Day-olds, 3-month old and adult stock sold at exorbitant prices and new producers used them to sell to others at similar exorbitant prices. However most breeders kept poor genetic records, and failed to use scientific based breeding procedures resulting in birds being inbred without purposeful direction, and this resulted in numerous problems. 

In the early 1990s over 300 producers/interested potential producers attended the Canadian Ostrich Association conference held in Vancouver.

Everyone was optimistic about the potential for ostrich meat and egg products. Of particular interest was the low fat content of ostrich meat and the durability and adaptability of the birds. Here was a bird that could be fed with forage and or pelleted feed allowing relative easy management of production costs.

In the mid 1990's Dr. Cheng's student Diane Kermode wrote an excellent report showing that the ostrich industry needed to focus on developing the supply chain for ostrich products. There was a need to develop a grower bird industry to provide tender meat products at economic prices for the consumer, to develop processing facilities to meet the specialized processing requirements of the ostrich and to address the issue of developing and marketing the low quality cuts from the ostrich at profitable prices, and finally to develop a mechanism to more economically utilize the byproducts such as fat and leather. There was also a need for grading regulations acceptable to CFIA (Canadian Food Inspection Agency) inspections, and a need for the industry to work together as an industry to facilitate all of these needs. Most importantly, to avoid destructive competition and to work together on those major industry development items.

The industry at the time did not adequately address the critical recommendation of this report.

The high prices of the ostriches being sold meant that most of the young stock sold ended up in the breeding industry to recover costs and some old birds with tough meat were sold by producers into the meat market to maximize their salvage value.  The Vancouver chefs who initially became interested in ostrich meat products had specified that the younger grower birds were what were needed by the restaurant trade.

Selling old birds into the meat market was a sure way of damaging the reputation of ostrich meat. Chefs liked grower ostrich meat because of its taste neutrality. They could use their culinary expertise in spicing to create a broad variety of tasteful meals. 

Some high quality restaurants did purchase ostrich meat however, most purchasers found the supply inconsistent. The low number of suppliers, inconsistent supply and the high cost of production due to high breeder costs factored into end product costs reduced the competitiveness of the product in the red meat market. BC Ostrich production in the years after 2000 was consolidated to only a couple of farms. These large farmers purchased much of the stock from the smaller producers. Later to find that many birds were inbred with one another with unknown breeding.  Some small producers who close down over time simply used the birds as a tax write-off. The BC Ostrich Association and its sister association, the BC Emu Association are now defunct.

Nutritive value of ostrich meat-   This was an important sales message for ostrich meat and one that was pretty well communicated to producers. However, consumer communication was limited, and in addition there was no mechanism for the industry to supply the product even if they did create a market given they had not addressed the supply chain limitations adequately. They were selling something they couldn't deliver reliably.

University of British Columbia-UBC, working with BC Ministry of Agriculture, communicated to the ostrich industry that they needed to work together cooperatively to address major issues of common interest. The message delivered was "don't compete over a small pie, build a big pie through working together and everyone can end up with a bigger piece".  However owners of specialty birds valued their production techniques as competitive advantage, and were generally unwilling to share this information. This attitude carried over into marketing and other important aspects of industry development. The few customers producers found they wanted to keep confidential. 

Funding for organizational meetings was limited and government grants for development of the industry were not readily available. 

Ostrich byproducts-   The major potential market for ostrich oils was in the nutriceutical and medical markets and this research is still in process. Other oils are more price competitive in the industrial and lubricant markets. Research on the standardization of ostrich oil for the medical and nutraceutical market is in its infant stage even at this time and requires developing and applying feeding processes and processing methodologies to accomplish product standardization. Continued research into diet, management and processing as well as understanding the genetic feeding interactions is needed. Food and Drug regulatory clearance was not available in the 90's to allow effective marketing of ostrich oil into the medical and nutriceutical market. 

Lower end ostrich cuts/ostrich leather- Low quality meat products were difficult to sell and small batch processing volume common, labor intensive and often carried out in smaller facilities with low economic efficiencies. Leather was processed in small batches and shipped elsewhere for final processing, partly because BC environmental regulations prohibited use of Chromium in tanning hides. The best ostrich leather products were manufactured elsewhere. 

Processing facilities- Ostriches require specialized transportation due to their territorial behavior, body conformation, and emotional responses to being transported. Upon arriving at the slaughter plant birds in process communicate with preslaughter birds which creates difficulties. Special processing of carcasses and handling of ostriches is required and both the handlers and processors need special training. Ostriches can be dangerous to handle if handled by untrained staff. The high capital cost of facilities and the high cost of development and implementing specialized grading regulations and providing input to meat inspection regulations for low volumes of product in the initial start up reduced the attractiveness to prospective processing plant investors. There was no assurance of supply. There was some consideration of multispecies plants. Multispecies plants have a unique set of issues in themselves from a regulatory standpoint.

Skinning of ostriches after they are killed so as to preserve the hides requires a well trained skinner. Ostriches historically have been slaughtered in red meat plants, not poultry plants due to the need for appropriate shackling and the size of the birds, specialized killing and processing.

In order to export ostrich products BC ostriches had to be processed in a federally inspected plant which are generally the larger plants Large plants generally are not interested in small batches of ostriches and often do not have the expertise.  These plants may also be required to do special cleanup after moving feather birds through their red meat plants. Provincial plants in BC cannot export ostrich meat. To build an economically viable ostrich industry one needs to be able to export the products. In the 1990's there were some significant markets in Europe and Africa which BC could not enter.

Grower operation- The need for feedlots or grower operations was missing.

Young ostriches less than about 14 months have more tender meat and are more economic to slaughter and can be supplied in higher numbers due to the generational time. In order to do this, scientific breeding of the breeder stock to create relatively uniform birds for slaughter is advisable. Uniformity is an important concept to processors to ensure that the amount of various cuts matches the needs in the market place and so that equipment available works effectively.

Grading regulations- Alberta agriculture did develop an extensive meat cut chart and I believe grading system for ostrich meat for use by the Canadian ostrich industry. I'm unsure of whether that was ever accepted by the Canadian Food Inspection Agency or tested for acceptance with the Provincial inspection systems where they provincial slaughter plants exist in Canada, or how if they were, the new meat inspection regulations passed in BC in the last few years, impacted their relevance.

To my knowledge most of the ostrich operations in BC are no longer in operation. I question whether any exist on Vancouver Island other than the two large ones in the interior of BC.

Feather value- Feathers which used to be the mainstay of the South African Ostrich industry prior to the 1900's declined in price dramatically in the early 1900's. Hat feathers were a main use for this product and cars made the use of feathers in hats obsolete. In addition, feather taken from wild birds for hats by people looking for a cheap source resulted in a number of prominent socialites in the US, organizing a protest against their use in hats and clothing on an animal welfare issue. Feather dusters ran into competition from synthetic dusters, and dress styles changed to reduce their use in neck wraps and dresses.

When feather market declined the South African industry collapsed and it wasn't until the mid 1940's that the South African industry revived as a meat market. Feathers were not a highly valued product for BC Ostrich producers in the 1990s in the hat or fashion industry. 

Niche market - Ostrich meat has many qualities from tenderness to taste neutrality, to being very low fat content which favor its development.  If this industry is to be developed the focus must change to continue breeder consolidation. This breeder need to use professional scientific breeding consultation with the University, build grower facilities and flocks, build specialized processing plants with export capability, and address marketing. Going to the market before being ready in the 1990's in an unorganized way, with insufficient supply and variable quality product is an additional challenge that the consolidated producers will now have to overcome. Producers need to work together to address the key supply chain issues.

Editor Comments on Report
I would like to express our thanks to Stewart Paulson for taking the time to write a very concise and excellent report.   There is one comment I will make in this newsletter as it expresses exactly the way the industry was sold to the world and it is totally reverse to the true potential of ostrich.  

The true potential of ostrich from a production view point is their commercial potential as a monogastric producer of a quality red meat when farmed under commercial conditions based on sound animal husbandry systems and good science. 

Avian Influenza still active in South Africa
December saw a further 4 outbreaks reported to the OIE  by the SA veterinary. 

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