Weighing on the Quail Farming Business: My Unsolicited Opinion

The Five Competitive Forces That Shape Strategy

The Quail money or the idea that some wild bird     a poor feeder that lays eggs with great health benefits from week 6- 8 for the next two or so years could be the reason this new business is booming or at least very attractive to anyone who wants to make some good money fast & easy. But let’s take a closer look at where this quail money is heading and at the end of this article you’ll have some points to ponder on before starting.

But you may ask, why do I care to write about quails and their money? Well, financial stability ranks high on my ‘Must haves’ thus any idea that makes me or my friends money legally & ethically is definitely worth looking at or listening to.

So as a blogger      armed with an opinion and some internet connection wrote this unsolicited opinion.

To make my post more than just an opinion I weighted the quail business against the five Cs, the forces that shape competitive strategy by Michael Porter.

Awareness of the five forces can help you    the guy who wants the a piece of the quail money       understand the structure of this new industry and stake out a position that is more profitable.

The Idea in Brief

You know that to sustain long-term profitability you must respond strategically to competition. And you naturally keep tabs on your established rivals. But as you scan the competitive arena; are you also looking beyond your direct competitors? As Porter explains in his update of his revolutionary 1979 HBR article, four additional competitive forces can hurt your prospective profits:

1. Savvy customers will force down prices by playing you and other quail farmers against one another. Due to the popularity of quails, their eggs and all that chances are the eggs will settle up at around 15- 25 shillings per egg range. When the market is flooded with these eggs & birds the price will definitely go down. So if you go into this business now chances are you might not sell your eggs at 75-90 shillings range. Think about that!

2. Powerful suppliers may constrain your profits if they charge higher prices.

As quail farming gets more popular people are moving up the value chain. Some are now making ‘Quail Feeds’ & selling them at a fortune, these birds will need supplements to lay daily for two years so somebody can fill this gap, somebody will also form a cooperative or some distribution/marketing agency to sell quail products. When everyone has these eggs & birds these brokers/exporters/suppliers will buy the products at bad prices. There will be ‘Quail Farming Consultants’, some guy will start selling DVDs or handouts on Quail farming     education. To visit some quail farms one has to pay up 100 to 500 per trip to get some advice on quail farming.

3. Aspiring new entrants, armed with new capacity and hungry for market share      people like you       can ratchet up the investment required for existing players to stay in the game. This really isn’t a big factor in the quail business now. All you need is a KWS license, the sheds and the birds. However in the next few months the big      the bigger      the biggest quail farmers will keep the bulk of the quail profits. So if you want to do this, do think of keeping 20 birds.

4. Substitute offerings can lure customers away. The demand of quail products will also come under attack by cheaper or better substitute products. I am told that for the health benefits doctors are prescribing the quail eggs to terminally ill patients. For that some of the farmers are selling their eggs through pharmacies & chemists, hospitals, clinics and supermarkets. The thing here is should the prices remain high or at least out of reach from the kawaida mwananchi chances are people will look for alternatives. Think of that.

By analyzing all five competitive forces, you gain a complete picture of what will influence profitability of your quail business in the next few months. You identify trends early, so you can swiftly exploit them— or even reshape the forces in your favor. Key thing here is you don’t need to rear these birds to have a slice of the quail money.

Think of getting up in the value chain.