We are shifting from producing frozen to ready-to-eat chicken – CEO of Tuns farm
How would you assess the impact of policies of the federal government on agriculture, especial poultry farming? As a nation, I don’t think we are promoting agriculture. The country is more or less like a trading company. When ex-President Olusegun Obasanjo was there, the agricultural products that Nigerians were consuming were locally produced. Go to […]
How would you assess the impact of policies of the federal government on agriculture, especial poultry farming?
As a nation, I don’t think we are promoting agriculture. The country is more or less like a trading company. When ex-President Olusegun Obasanjo was there, the agricultural products that Nigerians were consuming were locally produced. Go to the markets now, you will see turkey, chicken, apple and other agricultural products from every part of the world. I have not seen any federal government impact on agriculture. The federal government would only tell you many theories but in reality, you cannot find anything. Go to supermarkets across the country, you will see imported products of meat and food that we are also producing locally being displayed because the government is looking for investors. Unfortunately, the investors are bringing the items they could not sell in their countries, which we also have in abundance, thereby boosting their own economy and labour force and killing ours. For us as poultry farmers, what we were able to achieve were the things we achieved in the regime of ex-President Olusegun Obasanjo. But the government is only talking about vitalisation. In the last 3 months, we are facing problem of Soya beans as there is no Soya meal in the country and we had to resort to importation. Unfortunately, the imported frozen foods are smuggled into Nigeria as you cannot see their records in the Central Bank of Nigeria and the Nigeria Custom Service. All the imported agricultural products you would find in this country were not imported legitimately because they would not be brought in through the borders.
The United States of America Regional Agricultural Counsellor for Nigeria and Ghana Mr Selfart Kurt recently visited your farm, what informed the visit?
The relationship between TUNS Farm Limited and the United States of America has been on for over 20 years and the US recognised us as one of the major stakeholders in the agricultural business in Nigeria. More so, I have been involved in government policies relating to agriculture in the country and when I’m involved, the TUNS farm is also involved. This has enabled me to know the prospect and future of agriculture in Nigeria. Stakeholders and various embassies knew the role Tuns Farm is playing in agricultural business in Nigeria. In fact, the US Consul usually visits TUNS farm every year and we compare notes about agriculture. Also, US usually help us to train our staff on food security and safety.
What is the worth of the investment on the Tuns Farm?
I invested over N8 billion on poultry alone. We control 80 percent of the inputs in the farm. We have the parent stuck that lay the eggs, we have hatchery where we hatch day-old chicks, we rear the birds in the farms, we process and produce feeds, we slaughter chickens using our plants and market the final products. There are other areas and the investment is not going to stop. In fact, we are changing the concept now. In the past, we are doing frozen chicken, we are now going into ready-to-eat product in which the chicken would be ready to be eaten. We are going to partner with some foreigners to achieve this and we are going to build ultramodern facilities in the farm very soon. I should not forget to tell you that Tuns Farm is one of the two certified poultry farms that supply Kentucky Fried Chicken (KFC) which is the world’s number one restaurant. We are only two in Nigeria that has the facilities to supply KFC, considering the standard and facilities required. Out of our total production in Tuns Farm, about 2 percent is consumed by Osun people while we are supplying chicken across the country.
What support do the poultry farmers get from Osun State Government?
Osun State Government has been supporting poultry farmers and that is why broiler meat production in the state has increased. We have an agreement with Osun State Government. Tuns Farm is giving day-old chicks to farmers while Osun State Government is responsible for 50 percent of the feeds and Tuns is responsible for the remaining 50 percent of the feeds. This has encouraged many poultry farmers to operate conveniently in the state. On every poultry farm that is involved in the scheme, the state government has certain percentage of the investment. For instance, if the total investment on a farm is N2 million, Osun State Government has N600, 000 while Tuns Farm has the rest N1.4 million. The farmers are making their own profit and a lot of farmers have benefited in the scheme. Meanwhile, the investment of the state government is reducing as we have paid about N270 million back to the government out of its total investment in the scheme. The government only helped us to jump-start the project and it has assisted the internally generated revenue (IGR) in the state as we are also paying tax of about N1.3 million to the government every month. Very soon, the investment of the state government in the scheme would be zero and it would become our project.
Generally, how do you assess the performance of Osun State Government in the area of supporting and enhancing agriculture in the state?
Osun State Governor, Mr Rauf Aregbesola, has a very good intention to transform Osun through agriculture but he may not have the best practitioners to assist him in actualising this. Aregbesola wanted a situation where Osun State would be able to feed itself and export agricultural produce. For instance, unlike before, now that only 2 percent of our total production is consumed in the state, it has increased to 15 percent because of the Osun school feeding programme known as O’MEAL that we are supplying. So the governor has a good intention and I’m sure agriculture has good prospects in Osun with this governor. One of the areas the governor is targeting, which I think would add value, is the area of maize. If the governor achieves his intention on the area of maize production, I would not need to go to Funtua in the North to buy maize to feed my birds. In Tuns Farm, we buy 500 million naira worth of maize from the North. If I can get the maize in Osun, it would relief me the cost of transportation. You can imagine the number of people who would work on a farm that would give us the maize worth N500 million. Imagine that N500 million in circulation in Osun and the tax that the farmers would pay to the government. And if there are many other agricultural commodities like that, you can imagine what would be the turnover. Osun is lucky to have someone like Aregbesola who has intention of jumpstarting such a project but it is another thing to have people who can help him to implement the idea. There have been a lot of paper work but how does that translate into reality?