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| AFRICABIZ
VOL 2 - ISSUE: 108
April
15 - May 14, 2008
Previous
Issue
Editor: Dr. Bienvenu-Magloire Quenum
Click here for contact & support console
| | A
WORD FROM THE EDITOR
| | |
|
Dear visitor and international investor,
We
warmly welcome you, if this is
your first visit to Africabiz
Online - The ultimate newsletter
on trading and investing in 49
sub-Saharan African countries.
If you are a regular and faithful
reader, welcome back.
-
FOOD RIOTS ACROSS THE CONTINENT HIGHLIGHT AFRICAN
DEVELOPMENT SCHEMES' STRUCTURAL UNBALANCE
All over the continent, sky-rocketing
food prices are fueling popular discontent and unprecedented strikes and demonstrations.This
had already been exposed
in March 15, 2008 delivery.
The crisis is picking up momentum worldwide in such a way that several South
Asian countries - India and Pakistan in particular, decided to restrict
the export of rice. The crisis being (apparently) a world crisis fueled by
rising crude oil's purchasing price, one could consider
it is normal it is also occurring in sub-Saharan African countries.
Is that a good reasoning? To see if such analysis is correct, let us review
the listing of commodities and food staples African governments are hurriedly
subsidizing in the hope to quiet citizens's anger and extinguish social disturbance
fire.
Indeed,
in Western, Central, Eastern and Southern African regions, governments are
waiving out taxes and levies to granting subsidies to wheat flour, canned
tomato paste and canned peeled tomato, rice, milk powder and canned condensed
milk, pasta and noodles, cooking oil and cooking gas cylinders, gas oil, cement,
iron threads for reinforced concrete. Etc. However, one notices that not a
single medicine is included in the listing. Why pharmaceuticals are not
included? That is odd, as the prices of medicines are also skyrocketing and
most people in African countries cannot afford buying pharmaceuticals anymore.
One notices also that products and commodities included in the listing are
imported up to 100% - except for cement which production in some African countries
covers 30% of the demand. In other words, not a single African country is self-sufficient
in food production They are not self-sufficient in milk production, tomato,
meat, rice, and wheat production. Except in South Africa, maize or corn, the
basic food staple for millions of Africans is not produced in quantities and
ground to flour to (partially) replace wheat flour import. The same for roots
and tubers, which are not cultivated and processed in quantities
to replace rice. For instance, Gari,
the popular west African cassava floor [60, 61, 63, 64]
is not produced in huge volumes to cater for a demanding population. Examples
are endless.
These shortcomings in the
developing landscape of African countries is the reason Africabiz Online
states that developing
schemes implemented in African countries are not adequate. These schemes
do not promote the cultivation of local food crops and staples to
provide abundant food stuffs to the population. These so called "development
schemes" are structurally unbalanced.
Measures hurriedly taken by governments are buying time decisions that cannot
be extended for to long as billions of local currencies are shed in the "void"
to save the day. These billions are lost for the proper development of the
countries.
Indeed,
the only way to put an end to the crisis is to design and promote modern agriculture
in Africa, to develop local crops and provide logistics and other support to
the farmers. That is the way America and Europe proceeded. Thailand is another
exemplary country that systematically develop its agriculture. Today, Thailand
is almost the only Asian country shielded against the crisis. Its rice production
amount to a staggering volume of 9,000,000MT.
It is time for African decision
makers to follow suit Thailand and set the black continent free from the
mantra of globalization; supporting the development of a strong agricultural
sector that promotes local crops. (Read
John Perkins's book: Confessions
of An Economic Hitman to see how we are manipulated
to work for our own demise! The video below exposed explained how economic
hitmen operates)
In some quarters, the rising
cost of energy is blamed
for the crisis. Is that true?
Indeed, oil price increased
ten fold in eight years,
from US$10 per barrel in
2000 to the actual level
averaging US$100 since January
2008. However, can one agree
right away with pundits that
skyrocketing oil price is
responsible for current worldwide
food crisis?
We invite you to read more about
the matter visiting following link: The
Rising Price of Oil: Not A Valid Excuse To Explain Food Crisis in African Countries
- SERVICES
AND PRODUCTS FROM Dr. QUENUM & ASSOCIATES / BUSINESSAFRICA (TM)
List of Products and Solutions to trading and
investing in and out emerging nations - and particularly in sub-Saharan
African nations - is
here to review.
We draw your attention to Jobs & Projects'
platform that assists first, project-owners to tender for
the best experts to carry out projects at very competitive costs,
and, second, job-seekers to publish for free R�sum�s/CV to attract project-owners attention.
The Free and Pay-Per- Click advertisement
platform is also the cheapest way to advertise for your business
and drive traffic to your website.
 Dr.
Quenum and Associates, IBC / BusinessAfrica (TM) have decided to follow
Yahoo
wise business practice - that is to establish business relationship
only with clients who can produce email address linked
to an ISP domain name or that could be traced back against a database of valid
and legitimate domain names. In other words,
from now on, only ISP-based email messages can expect replies from Dr. Quenum & Associates,
IBC / BusinessAfrica (TM). For
more on the matter, please visit this link.
-
Contributor's Guidelines
are here to review. Your
contribution on "How
emerging nations and particularly
African countries / entrepreneurs
could bridge the developing gap" is
welcome.
| Your
feedback / objection / contribution is welcome. Visit WorldWide
BizCenter,
and choose General
Information (as topic) to
create a thread for discussion. On the top of the WorldWide BizCenter page,
there is a HELP link to assist you making an efficient
use of the discussion board. This
link also is useful |
Many
thanks for dropping by and see you here on May 15, 2008
Dr.
B.M. Quenum
Editor
of AFRICABIZ
|
| |
| BUSINESS
OPPORTUNITIES IN AFRICA
|
|
-
Several business opportunities - component parts of the Integrated Developing Scheme described in Africans, Stop Being Poor! are listed in following table.
|
1-SHEA BUTTER (5,
6, 7,
11, 12,
13)
2- BLUE GOLD (14,
15, 16,
17, 18,
19)
3- FREEZE-DRIED PAPAIN (20,
21, 22
and here)
4- KENAF (23,
24)
5- VEGETABLE OIL (25,
26, 27,
28)
6- CEREALS (30,
31, 32,
33)
7- FRUITS (34,
35, 36,
37, 38,
39, 40,
42, 43,
44, 45,
46)
8- ESSENTIAL OILS (47,
48, 49,
50, 51,
52)
|
9- ROOTS & TUBERS (54, 55, 56, 57, 58, 59, 60, 61, 62, 63, 64)
10- FOWL BREEDING (66, 67, 68, 69, 70, 71, 72, 73, 74, 75, 76)
11- FISH FARMING (78, 79, 80, 81, 82, 83, 84, 85, 86, 87)
12- BIOMASS ENERGY (89, 90, 91, 92)
13- SUGAR CANE & PRODUCTS (93, 94, 95, 96, 97, 98, 99/100, 101, 102)
14- LIVESTOCK (103,
104,
105,
106,
107,
108,
109, |
|
-
LIVESTOCK & GAME DEVELOPMENT: PART
V - A MEDIUM-SCALE CATTLE FATTENING OPERATION - C - INVESTMENT & ECONOMICS
This delivery is a continuation of the previous ones [104, 105,
106, 107 ]
that laid down the basics for animal feed formulation.
Broad fattening trade's principle reads as follows: �Buy
the cattle low. Fatten them cheaply. Sell them high.�
Thus three main questions: (1) Where to buy; (2) How to fatten, and (3) How to
sell
At following link
are listed livestock breeds of the African origin
Wilkipedia provides
here a long list of breeds worldwide
The following linked-site provides
comprehensive description of African breeds
Let
us consider a medium scale operation to fattening cattle, which
at full gear delivers 100 animals every month to the slaughterhouse.
That is an operation
that produces 1,200 fattened animals in 12 months-period,
after 25 months-period of fattening - as shown on the graphic below, which
area had been limited to 12 months-period to save space. (On the graphic, Q stands
for Quarantine,
S for Sold and the green
area represents the fattening period).
| Batch/Months |
1 |
2 |
3 |
4 |
5 |
6 |
7 |
8 |
9 |
10 |
11 |
12 |
| 1 |
Q |
|
S |
|
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| 2 |
|
Q |
|
S |
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| 3 |
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|
Q |
|
S |
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| 4 |
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Q |
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S |
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| 5 |
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Q |
|
S |
| 6 |
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Q |
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| 7 |
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Q |
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| 8 |
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Q |
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| 9 |
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|
Q |
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| 10 |
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|
Q |
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| 11 |
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Q |
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| 12 |
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Q |
In other words,
in order to put 1,200 fattened animals on the market in 12 month-period,
one has to purchase 2,500 White
Fulani cattle over a period of 25 months (for
more visit previous delivery). Each single animal head in each purchased
batch of 100 cattle weighting in average 75/ 80kg.
-
INVESTMENT ESTIMATE, OPERATING COSTS, AND REVENUES
Explanations given in previous
preliminaries indicate that 2,500 animals are fattened during a period of 25
months in order to put 1,200 fattened animal on the marketplace.
Data dating back to the 1980s (personal archive) and pertaining to the state-run
fattening operation at Ferkessedougou/
Ivory Coast, show that the following
daily feeding formula permits weight gains in the range of 450gr
to 500gr per day. The resulting weight gain
in tropical conditions would be approximately the same with alternative
feeding formula here available. Idem for a feed formulation composed from
information available
at following links [1, 2].
Following link [3]
managed by the University of Georgia (www.georgiadrought.org) provides a rough
estimate of feeding costs.
It is difficult to get import/export stats on molasses as the
product is blended with sugar and honey in statistic listing available on specialized
websites such as
the one exposed on this link. Based on personal archive we take the selling
price US$20 per MT west African origin.
For cotton seeds, the selling price west African origin had sharply increased
since the 1990s due to the heavy export to European countries. Prices moved from
average US$70 per MT (1990) to up to US$252 per MT (March/April 2008) - origin Senegal -
see an article written in French by Pape Demba SIDIBE in
le Soleil dated April 12, 2008.
Let us consider the daily feeding formula here
available, in which cotton-seeds oil-cake/oil meal is replaced by a daily
intake of 0.250kg of ground cotton-seed. Taking
in consideration speculative pricing trend above exposed for cotton-seeds, we
opted for a price of US$200 per MT; and for molasses (US$20 per MT). The total
feeding consumption and costs to fattening 1,200 cattle-heads for six-month period
(from 75kg each to 150 kg) is reported on the following table:
| Feeds |
Total consumption
over 7 month-fattening period* |
Costs US$ |
| Molasses |
[4.5kg*210days*1200heads]
= 1,134MT*20$ |
22,680 |
| Ground Cotton-seeds |
[0.250kg*210days*1200heads]
= 63MT*200$ |
12,600 |
| Forage/kenaf leaves [23, 24] |
[15kg*210days*1200heads]
= 13MT*20$ |
3,780 |
| Salt+Hi-Mag Blocks |
[0.15kg*210days*1200heads]
= 0.394MT*350$ |
138 |
| Clean Water |
[50liters*210days*1200heads]
= 13Cubic Meter*75$ |
9,800 |
| Veterinarian medicines |
|
2,500 |
| Total feeding costs |
|
51,418 |
Total consumption
period above outlined includes also the quarantine period of approximately
one month It is in line with feeding
costs reported at the link available here. Based
on previous preliminaries, Investment and Operating Costs read as follows.
|
US$ |
|
INVESTMENT
|
1-
Plots fencing |
750 |
2-
Equipment: A computer, one farm tractor, a hamper, one
grinding machine, water pump. Etc. |
45,000 |
4-
Starting expenses: Purchase of initial
5 batches (see graphic above)
of underfed 500 cattle heads at US$ 250 per head (each animal weighting
75kg) . |
125,000 |
Total
investment |
170,750 |
|
PRODUCTION LEVEL
|
|
1,200 fattened cattle heads / weighting 150kg each and fattened from
an initial weight of 75kg |
|
OPERATING COSTS
|
Operational
Expenses: Feeding
cost as per previous table; staff and hands / management
salaries. Etc. |
70,000 |
| PRODUCTION
COST PER ANIMAL |
| US$60,000
divided by 1,200 fattened cattle heads / weighting 150kg each and
fattened from a initial weight of 75kg |
58.33 |
| GENERATED
REVENUES * |
| 1,200
fattened cattle heads sold at US$350 -
weighting 150kg each and fattened from an initial weight of 75kg |
420,400 |
| Gross
Profit: US$420,000 (selling price) minus US$300,000 (purchasing price) |
120,000 |
The opted selling price of US$350
per cattle head, puts the kilogram of good quality meat at the highly
competitive price (for African marketplace) of US$2.33 per kg. Return
On Investment is short in the range of four years. The business is a
profit making venture if the operation is vertically integrated to include
a slaughterhouse, meat transformation (smoking and salting for instance),
skins preparation, blood collection for animal feed and bio-gas production.
Next issue
109 (to
be delivered on May 15, 2008) will briefly expose renewable bio-gas energy
produced by the operation to enhance its profit-making potential.
| MORE
ON LIVESTOCK & GAME DEVELOPMENT |
1-Handbook
of Livestock Management
by Richard A. Battaglia (Paperback - Jul 21, 2006)
2- Raising
Small Livestock:
A Practical Handbook
by Jerome D. Belanger (Paperback - Feb 11, 2005)
3- The
Homesteader's Handbook
to Raising Small Livestock Goats, Chickens, Sheep. Geese, Rabbitts, Hogs, Turkeys,
Guinea Fowl, Ducks and Pigeons
by Jerome D. Belanger (Hardcover - April 1974)
4-
Backyard Livestock:
Raising Good, Natural Food for Your Family, Third Edition by Steven Thomas and
George P. Looby (Paperback - Jan 2, 2007)
5-
Keeping
Livestock Healthy:
A Veterinary Guide to Horses, Cattle, Pigs, Goats & Sheep, 4th Edition
by
N. Bruce Haynes (Paperback - Nov 1, 2001)
6- Alternative
Health Practices for Livestock
by Michael Keilty and Thomas Morris (Hardcover - Jan 1, 2006)
|
7- A
World Dictionary of Livestock Breed
Types, and Varieties
by V. Porter and I. L. Mason (Hardcover - Jun 6, 2002)
8- Livestock
waste facilities handbook
(Paperback - 1985)
9- Raising
Small Livestock:
A Practical Handbook
by Jerome D. Belanger (Paperback - Feb 11, 2005)
10-
Livestock Feeds and Feeding (5th Edition)
(Hardcover - Jun 8, 2001)
by Richard O. Kellems and David C. Church
11- Raising
Game Birds
by Lessiter Publications (Paperback - Jun 1986)
12- Livestock
Production in Unfavourable Economic Environments:
Strategies for Attaining Sustained Competitive Advantage
by P. G. A Jennings
(Hardcover - Mar 30, 2007)
|
Adobe
Acrobat Reader is available here
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companies, government
agencies,
international development
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