As we close the year 2025 and look forward to the New Year, consumers continue to reel under hard economic times, characterised by high food and energy prices, as well as increased taxes.
The economic outlook going into the festive season and 2026 does not look rosy, to say the least.
This calls for prudence in spending, with households keen to cut spending on every food item in a season where meat features prominently on the menu for many households.
Compared to beef, poultry meat is still evidently cheaper at Sh350-500 per kilo, while beef (meat on bones) currently retails at Sh700-800/kg in most butcheries. But why are shoppers still more willing to spend on beef than chicken? Our national per capita consumption of beef compared to chicken is still at 6kg/person per year, while chicken is at a paltry 2kg/person/year. How can we shift the mindset of consumers to poultry product preference?
The first simple explanation is that beef is more readily available in the market. Poultry products, on the other hand, are unique by their nature; they are biological assets that lose their quality and value over a specified time, even when handled correctly throughout the value chain.
They require specific storage conditions, handling techniques and expertise to reduce damage, deaths, spoilage, contamination, and expiry.
Most rural farmers find it difficult to access the market. Farmers must, therefore, more than ever, build resources and tools to help them deliver their products into this dynamic and volatile market.
The goal is to gain a competitive advantage by understanding the needs and wants of customers wherever they are. The single impediment to successful poultry farming has been the reliance on middlemen or brokers to market and sell products.
This calls for proper networking, requiring person-to-person contact with a list of your friends, colleagues, and business associates to assist you with the generation of orders and closing of sales.
Having a good network connects you with butchers, wholesalers, supermarkets, hotels, and processors. Direct engagement with industry helps secure long-term supply contracts, thus creating strong relationships that eventually improve price bargaining skills.
Direct marketing needs you to communicate the value of your products through the use of brochures, postcards, fliers, and sales letters to potential buyers and processors.
Ensure you clearly state your contacts and where your products can be accessed. It is now easy and cheaper to advertise your poultry products, be they eggs or ready broilers, on local radio stations, in the yellow pages, in directories, in print media or even on TV stations if you can afford it.
You can also engage in personal/direct selling by meeting face-to-face with potential customers.
As you do this, you must demonstrate a positive attitude, a welcoming demeanour, and confident product knowledge. What will make your product stand out? You need to give your customers something unique from other players in the market.
Innovate and add value to your products by presenting your chickens differently - cut-ups, boneless, or marinated. You can also pack your eggs differently by grading them based on size.
If you are a public figure, this will come in handy in conveying the value of your products to the masses, either through the press or open platforms.
Show that your birds are professionally grown without using growth promoters, additives, antimicrobials, or any other unethical practices to disguise quality. Attend relevant trade shows where you can showcase your products, such as Food and Kitchen Kenya, Kenya Food Pack expo, and Poultry Farming Expo. These forums are no longer a preserve of big companies; they are an opportunity for you to meet industry partners and customers and learn about the latest market trends.
Finally, you can leverage referral marketing, which is a tool that uses recommendations and word of mouth from your existing customers to grow your business. It is a cost-effective, powerful, and well-trusted tool. However, you must make sure that your products stand out against the competition.
[Dr Messo is the company veterinarian, Kenchic; watsonmesso@yahoo.com]
