Finding Buyers for Broilers and Eggs in Ghana

A broiler at six or seven weeks eats close to 200 grams of feed a day. If 500 finished birds stand in your house for one extra week because nobody has come to buy them, they eat about 650 kg of feed, which is 13 bags, and they gain weight less efficiently with every day that passes. Eggs are no more patient. A flock of 500 layers at 80 per cent production gives you 13 crates every day, 93 crates a week, whether or not you have anyone to take them, and in Ghana's heat an egg is noticeably older after seven days on a shelf.

That is why selling has to be planned before production, not after it. The farmers who struggle are seldom those who cannot rear birds. They are those who start looking for a buyer on day 40.

What you are competing with

Most of the chicken eaten in Ghana arrives frozen from abroad and is sold as cut portions from cold stores at prices a local farm cannot match per kilo. Trying to beat imported leg quarters on price is a losing game. Local chicken sells for other reasons, and your marketing should be built on them:

• It is fresh. Killed today, not frozen months ago.
• It can be bought alive. Many households want to see a healthy bird and have it slaughtered in front of them, in the way their faith requires.
• It tastes and cooks differently. Customers who make light soup or grill whole birds notice.
• The buyer knows the farm. People like to know how their food was raised and whom to call if something is wrong.

Eggs face less competition from imports, but a lot from other farms. With eggs, buyers stay with the supplier who is reliable: the same quality, the same day each week, with no excuses.

The channels side by side

No single channel is best. A sound plan uses one channel for volume and one or two for margin.

Selling broilers: channel by channel

Live bird markets and traders

Every large town has a live poultry section in or beside its main market, and the traders who sell there buy from farms. Some come to the farm gate with crates and a vehicle. Others expect you to deliver. They are the quickest way to empty a house, and for a batch of several hundred birds they are usually part of the plan.

Traders price by eye and by lifting the bird, and they prefer heavier broilers because their own customers do. Before they arrive, weigh a sample of at least 20 birds so you know your average and cannot be told the birds are "small". Phone three traders on the same morning to learn the going price. Agree the price per bird and the number before loading begins, count the birds into the crates together, and take payment before the vehicle leaves.

The weakness of this channel is that price is set by the market on the day. In the weeks before Christmas, Easter and the Eids it is strong. In January and February it is weak, because festive stock is still clearing and households have less money.

Chop bars, waakye and fried rice sellers, grills

Food sellers use chicken every day, and most of them buy imported frozen portions because the supply is steady and each piece is the same size. To win one as a customer you have to match that reliability and give them a reason to pay more.

• Offer the same weight every time. A cook who cuts each bird into eight or ten portions needs every bird alike, or the plates look unequal.
• Deliver dressed and, if they want it, cut. Ask exactly how they portion.
• Deliver on the same day each week, early, before they start cooking.
• Suggest they sell it as a named item ("fresh local chicken") at a higher plate price than their standard chicken. That is how the extra cost works for them.

Ten such customers taking 10 birds a week each give you a steady outlet for 100 birds a week, all year. That suits a farm running small staggered batches far better than one large house.

Caterers and event cooks

Weddings, funerals, outdoorings and corporate lunches consume a lot of chicken, mostly at weekends. A caterer may want 150 dressed birds on a Friday and then nothing for three weeks. The orders are large and the price is fair, but the terms are strict: the right number, cleaned properly, chilled, at the agreed hour. A caterer let down once does not call again.

Take a deposit when the order is placed, confirm two days before, and build a small surplus into the number you prepare in case some carcasses are bruised or underweight. If you slaughter on the farm, our guide to slaughtering and dressing broilers hygienically covers the set-up.

Cold stores, mini-marts and supermarkets

Shops with freezers can sell whole frozen local chicken alongside imports. They want a consistent carcass weight, clean packaging, a label and a regular supply, and larger shops often pay weeks after delivery. Processing and packing meat for retail also brings regulatory requirements. Ask the Food and Drugs Authority and the environmental health office of your district assembly what currently applies before you invest in bags and labels. This channel fits a farm that already produces every week. It is seldom the place for a first batch.

Households

Families, colleagues, neighbours and fellow congregants pay the best price per bird. They buy one to five at a time, live or dressed, and they come back if the bird was good. The work lies in the number of small transactions. Make it manageable:

• Fix one or two sale days per batch and one pickup point, so you are not delivering single birds all week.
• Sell around payday. Orders taken in the last week of the month, for delivery on the first weekend of the next, are the easiest to collect on.
• Offer dressing for a stated fee. Many urban buyers will not take a live bird.
• Find one organiser in an office, an estate or a church group who collects orders for you, and reward that person with a free bird for every agreed number sold.

Selling eggs: who takes them every week

Egg selling is a routine, not an event. The flock lays daily for a year or more, so you want buyers who take a fixed quantity on fixed days.

• Provision shops and kiosks. They take 2 to 20 crates a week each. Visit every shop within a short ride of the farm, leave your number and offer delivery on set days.
• Wholesalers and distributors. They collect large quantities from the farm, often with their own vehicle, and resell to retailers. The price is lower, but they clear the store room.
• Street food vendors. Boiled egg sellers, fried egg and noodle stands, waakye sellers and tea sellers use eggs daily and often prefer medium eggs, which cost them less per piece.
• Bakers and pastry makers. They buy by the crate and will take small, oversized and sound but odd-shaped eggs that shops refuse.
• Households. One or two crates at a time, usually collected or delivered with other orders.

Grade eggs by size and keep dirty and cracked ones out of the crates you sell at full price. A retailer who finds three cracked eggs in a crate remembers it. Supplying larger institutions has its own demands (volumes, invoices, payment terms), which we cover in supplying eggs to shops, schools and hotels.

Find the buyers before you order chicks

Do this exercise on paper in the four weeks before you stock.

1. Week 1: look and ask. Visit the nearest live bird market on a market day. Ask traders what weight they want, what they are paying now, and whether they collect from farms in your area. Walk your own neighbourhood and count the chop bars, food stands and provision shops. Ask each what they buy now and from whom.
2. Week 2: collect commitments. Go back to the most promising and ask a direct question: "If I have birds of this weight (or eggs of this size) in a given week, how many will you take, and at what price?" Write the name, phone number, quantity and price in a notebook.
3. Week 3: size the batch. Add up the quantities. Spoken promises shrink, so stock no more than about three quarters of the total. If buyers say they will take 400 birds, order 300 chicks.
4. Week 4: fix the date. Order chicks and work out the sale week. Tell every buyer on your list the date and that you will confirm again two weeks before.

When you order from Halaal Farms, the hatch date, price and delivery cost are confirmed before you pay, so you can give buyers a firm week. If you have never sold poultry before, one way to test your market without waiting six weeks is to buy a small number of market-ready broilers or a few crates of table eggs, both of which we supply, and see how quickly your contacts take them and at what price. Use the order form to ask.

Match the batch to what your buyers can absorb

The right batch size is set by your buyers, not by your house. Finished broilers should be gone within about 7 to 10 days of reaching target weight. If your confirmed outlets take 150 birds a week between them, a batch of 300 clears in two weeks. A batch of 1,000 would take nearly seven, and you would be feeding birds far heavier than anyone ordered.

Farms that sell mainly to food vendors and households usually do better with a smaller batch every two or three weeks than with one large batch every two months. It keeps customers supplied without gaps and keeps each sale within the safe window. The planning is explained in planning broiler batches through the year, and the question of the exact sale day in when to sell broilers.

Using WhatsApp and your phone properly

For household and small business customers, WhatsApp is now the main shop window. A few habits separate sellers who get orders from those who get ignored.

• Post real photos. Your own birds, in your own house, and one bird on a scale with the reading visible. Customers have learned to distrust stock pictures.
• Say everything in one message. Weight range, price per bird or per crate, live or dressed, pickup point, delivery charge, sale dates and your mobile money number with the registered name.
• Use status and broadcast lists. Status reaches everyone who has saved your number. A broadcast list sends a private message to each customer at once, and it only reaches people who have your number saved, so ask every customer to save it.
• Respect groups. In estate, church, alumni or workplace groups, ask the administrator before advertising and post once per batch, not daily.
• Announce early. Post when the chicks arrive, at three weeks and at five weeks. By sale week people have watched the birds grow and many have already ordered.
• Keep a customer list. Name, number, what they bought and when. Message past buyers personally five days before each sale.
• Answer fast. A buyer who waits three hours for a reply has bought elsewhere.

Pre-orders and deposits

A pre-order with money attached is the only kind you can count. For any order you are asked to reserve, request a deposit by mobile money. As an example, many sellers ask for between a quarter and a half of the price, with the balance on collection. State clearly, in writing, what happens to the deposit if the customer does not collect in the agreed period.

Keep a simple register: name, phone, number of birds or crates, deposit received, balance due, collection day. Tick each line as it is settled. If deaths leave you short, serve deposit-paying customers first and tell anyone affected at once, with a refund or a firm place in the next batch.

Credit and payment rules that protect you

More small farms are damaged by unpaid deliveries than by disease. Shops and food sellers will ask for credit. Decide your rules before the first request.

• Payment on delivery for at least the first three orders from any new customer.
• For trusted regulars, credit of one delivery only. Nothing more is supplied until that is paid.
• A duplicate invoice book. The customer signs for what was received and you keep the copy.
• Check each mobile money payment in your own wallet balance before goods leave. Do not rely on a message shown on the buyer's phone or an SMS alone, since fake alerts are a known trick.
• Record every sale the same day. Your sales record shows who really buys, and it feeds directly into the price you should charge, which we discuss in how to price your eggs and broilers.

When the buyer does not come

Even with a good list, a trader's vehicle breaks down or a caterer's event is cancelled. Decide your fallback before sale week, while you can still think calmly.

• A second trader. Keep two or three numbers and tell each you may call at short notice.
• A price ladder. Decide in advance at what date you will accept a lower price. Compare the discount with the feed the birds eat each extra day and you will usually find that selling a little cheaper today beats waiting a week for the old price.
• Freezing. If you have freezer space and dependable power or a generator, dress and freeze part of the batch for sale over the following weeks. Without reliable power, do not attempt it.
• Selling earlier and lighter. Some food vendors prefer smaller birds. Offering part of the flock a few days early spreads the sale.
• For eggs. Move surplus through bakers, vendors and bulk discounts within the week, selling oldest stock first.

Before you commit to a batch, put your expected sale price, feed cost and number of birds through the poultry profit calculator, and test what happens to the margin if you have to sell a week late or a few cedis lower. If the batch only pays when everything goes perfectly, it is too large for your present market.

Halaal Farms Ghana supplies broiler day-old chicks and layer chicks to all 16 regions, with a minimum order of one box of 50. If you have a list of buyers and a sale week, call 024 915 1503 and we will help you work back to the hatch date that fits it.

Questions farmers ask

Written by the Halaal Farms Ghana team. We hatch and import day-old chicks at Opeikuma, Kasoa, and deliver to all 16 regions. This article is general guidance for farmers. For diagnosis and treatment of sick birds, speak to a vet or your district veterinary office.

Share this article