Economy Impact of Poultry, Chickens, turkeys, ducks and any other similar birds which are also known as poultry have a large social and business impact. The poultry business because of cheap protein, jobs and businesses has significant contribution to the local and global market. Since the current world economy has called for increase in meat and egg production and exportation the business has more strength in poultry production countries such as the USA, Brazil, China and the European Union.
This article provides an analytical perspective of the role of the poultry industry in the economy, its international trading, job creation, contribution to the growth of rural economies and the various issues was which it interacts.
Overview of Economy Impact of Poultry
Poultry has been one of the most rapidly developing branches in agriculture. Its being cheap, comparatively cheaper to produce and offers high returns of both meat and eggs have contributed to its importance as food in the world. The market for poultry crossed $300 billion in 2022 globally and experts have predicted continuous growth in future because of growing consumer demand for cheap animal protein.
The industry is highly concentrated horizontally in many countries implying that few companies control all aspects of production including breeding, hatching, processing and distribution. In doing so this integration helps to have splendid technical combination but at the same economic power also converges in few hands only.
Still, poultry holds strong market position in the food processing and production and ovine meat in particular, half of which constitutes chickens.
The Economic Contributions of Poultry
Job Creation and Employment
Employment opportunities offered by the poultry business remains a large factor considering the fact that it offers millions of employment openings all over the world. This leads to germination of employment opportunities not only in the farms but also in other industries that support farming such as producers of feed, transporters, processors, packagers and marketers of the feed. It has been widely known that many developing countries rely greatly on smallholder poultry farming, especially in their rural sector.
More over, according to the data, the poultry industry employ over 2 million people in the United States whoever pays billions of dollars in wages. NCC also estimates that the chicken production in the United States is valued at around 495 billion dollars in the economy. This would elect farmers who were growers of the crops as well as the employees in the processing companies and establishments for packaging, marketing and distribution.
Analytical Research on Rural Development and Economic Growth
Poultry farming as a sub-sector of animal farming is also a major practice in rural areas where it makes a substantial contribution on income generation. Since it generates some form of income which can be assured in areas where employment is rare, poultry farming is beneficial to rural communities. This is especially so in the third world nations where majority of the population are involved in subsistent farming. Poultry farming should also be encouraged because it involves limited capital outlay and once a farmer has reared a number of birds, he is assured of income in the form of eggs or meat within a short time.
These in turn, bring improvements in other support sectors such as road networks, electricity and water supply, among others, all of which help the growth of the regions’ economy.
Contribution to GDP
Poultry farming is an essential source of the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) in many nations globally. In the United States, poultry occupies the largest fraction of the agriculture value chain, and the economic return on the chicken sub-sector is more than $40 billion per annum.
The industry is also crucial to other countries including the Brazil which is a major producer and exporter of poultry foods in the worldwide. It is a fact that Brazilian people produce a lot of poultry, which makes up about thirty percent of the world’s poultry exports. According to the index, in 2022 Brazil’s poultry yeast market size contacted $3.87 billion while poultry export earning estimated being $7 billion; the major destinations for Brazil’s poultry products were; China, Saudi Arabia, and Japan.
Global Trade and Exports
Poultry is among the most important trade crops in the international markets today; key exporters of poultry include the United States of America, Brazil, China, and the European Union. The increased consumption of poultry in developing countries especially in the Asian and Africa continent has favored exports from these major suppliers.
Unfortunately for many of these countries, the exportation of poultry is one of the major sources of their foreign exchange. While in the U.S, the sale of poultry and other types of meat is central to balance in agriculture trade. Today, over $5 billion of chicken, turkey and eggs produce in the U.S are export in a year. These exports do not only provide income to farmers and processors but also increase stability of agricultural exports.
Poultry business around the worlds is influence by some factors such as consumer preferences, trade policies, and sanitary measures. For example with regards to avian flu, importers may risk restrain on poultry products originating from particular nation or area.
Some Problems of Economy Impact of Poultry
Despite these positives, the poultry industry has many challenges that threatens its future growth and development despite it being very vital to the Economy Impact of Poultry. These challenges include:
Epidemiological Disasters and Biological Hazards
Another emerging risk to the poultry industry is disease related risks/avain influenzia. Occasionally they infect birds causing losses through compulsory slaughtering, a loss that affects producers, processors and exporters. Apart from the financial loss, disease outbreaks have social costs whereby some economies affect importation of poultry products from the affected area.
There are also high expenses to meet the biosecurity measures on disease prevention or outbreak since this is costly especially for the smallholder farmer who may not be financially able to look for a large producer. Different governments and industry organizations have shifted their attention towards enhancing the methods of biosecurity in order to safeguard the poultry and hence trade.
Environment Impact and Social Responsibility
Poultry farming like all types of industrial agricultures has environmental consequences. They identified the industry as a large consumer of such inputs as water, land, feed grains for example corn and soy. Big companies in production of poultry can produce large volumes of waste and if not well disposed, they can reach our water bodies and cause effects.
Nevertheless, of late, there has been an increasing trend towards the improvement of the competence of poultry production. This ranges from smelling emissions, energy use, waste disposal, and making feed use much efficient than before. Farm techniques including precision agriculture and efficient feed formulation have also played a role in bringing down the effects of poultry farming on the environment.
Feed Costs and Input Prices
It costs are one of the major cost factors in poultry keeping, which can take up to 70 percent of the total cost of production. Consume prices contain a close relation with main commodity prices such as corn and soybean prices. Some of the key crops for poultry feeds include; Maize, sorghum, millet, groundnuts and others and when the prices of these crops change due to weathers conditions, trade policies or changes in demand, the profitability of poultry farming is affect.
This increase can lead to an increase in feed prices and could affect either the price to the consumer or the profit eventually. Corresponding to this, small share holders in the developing countries depend on cheap feeds for feeding their poultry hence a small hike on the feed prices poses a big threat on the poultry business.
lack of people and robotics solutions
As a result of this, the poultry industry, especially in processing plants, is more or less a labor-intensive affair. Still, job seekers are scarce due to the strain engrained in most positions as well as meager salaries offered to most employees. A shortage of workers can also badly affect production and costs: firms are face with the problem of having to raise wages or buy new machinery in order to turn out their goods.
Advanced technology in processing technology is now becoming evident in poultry processing with examples such as robotic deboning machines and sorting intuitive machines that use AI. Although these efficiency enhancing changes can eliminate or decrease reliance on labor, they imply high capital investment which could present a challenge to the small-scale producers.
Consumers’ attitudes towards Animal Welfare
Consumer awareness on animal wellbeing has raised the standards through which poultry is produce, especially in the developed world. Consumers are currently demanding free-range, organic, and those derived from poultry that has not been fed on antibiotics, and these usually have higher costs of production.
In response to consumers’ preferences for higher welfare animals, more producers have paid greater attention to improving genetic and environmental factors, including offering the birds a larger area to roam in and avoiding the use of antibiotics amongst other components. These practices may enhance marketability of a product but they also increase the cost of production which is then recover from the customer through higher charges.
Conclusion: Economy Impact of Poultry
Poultry farming plays an important role in generation of employment opportunities, income rural incomes, gross domestic product and export earnings. The very fact that through its production and sales it provides millions of people with basic foodstuffs and earnings, offering low-cost protein in the countries of both the developed and the developing world, makes it an industry without which humanity cannot survive.
Therefore, disputes such as disease outbreaks, environmental issues and increase in input costs have never affected the continually expanding poultry industry mainly because of the increasing customer demand and technological development. With the increasing demand for environmentally friendly and ethical sources of food, the poultry business needs to change and respond to the new trends as well as continue to bring the required economic value.
Poultry industry due to the social implications, contribution in Economy Impact of Poultry and the security of food it will continue to have its importance in the years to come at the international level in the Agricultural economy.