Emu Farming - the honeybot

Emu Farming has been a magic word for the past few years.

Most of the Geography students might have seen the outline pictures in the books about these birds, which are mainly found in Australia. Emu is the national bird of Australia, like what Peacock to our Country.

But, Emu farming was identified and developed as a business by US Farmers. In US, there were very high hope of this business in the earlier times, later, it has been dwindled.

In India, it has been claimed that 'Flightless birds of India' farm is the first one to bring this to India, through Chennai Airport. However, many others were also claiming they are the first one. This is looking like, one of the Cloth Shop in Trichy, claims they are the biggest Cloth shop in the entire country. who knows!!??

What's the sweetspot in this business, which initially attracted me? I will explain each of these facts, how far they are true in reality, later.

1. Emu's can lay 50 eggs per year.

2. Each Egg costs a minimum of Rs.1,500/-

3. The Farmer who sold the chick/bird will buy back the eggs, hence no Marketing issues.

4. The feed cost is around Rs.3,000/- per year for a bird. Farmer who sold the birds will provide regularly the "specially & custom-made" feed to you.

5. No diseases;

6. No Climate issues;

7. Just a fencing at a cost of Rs.15,000/- will do;

8. virtually NO MAINTENANCE at all.

9. As per the financial projections, you will make a minimum of Rs.50,000/- per year per pair. If you have 10 pairs, you make Rs.5,00,000/-, which is more than a IT professional earns in a year.

10. All kinds of guidance, regular farm visits will be provided by the farmer.

But, in reality, every point they have mentioned or spread through word-of-mouth turns out to be either understated or overhyped. But, you will realize only after you have committed, except few lucky-ones who have already researched enough of these facts before burning their fingers. Let me explain those each facts in my next blog.

PS: Thanks to Anil, who has posted me about www.emufarmer.com, which is hyderabad based EMU Farmer association. Good to know that there are some organized activities are going on in this industry. Tamil Nadu is yet to catch up to Andhra in this regard.