ABSTRACT

Emu Bird is a very tough bird with majestic appearance due to its height and look covered with brown feather coat. Emu farmers make the farming viable depending on the emu product sale like meat, feather, skin, oil which have demands in specific markets designed. More so the farming community tries to produce Emu chicks through hatching of eggs and sale the birds in pairs after due management and get good realization of value. Now when we consider the commercial viability of Emu farming by selling products it has been reported oil contribute significantly along with skin and Emu meat in the demanded market. But when we consider the cost of production of meat alone it looks expensive due to high FCR thus it demand superior price per kg of meat. Again to introduce any tender meat of Emu for higher price it would lose other sale values on paired grower stock sale, oil, skin etc., due to age effect. Thus this bird could not so far gain the required position for selling tender meat say by 20wk of age which become unviable. When we intend to derive all commercial products like oil, skin, feather etc., from the bird then only it justify the economical viability or commercial project viability subject to regular demand of products with reference to quality of such processed marketable products (oil, skin, meat, feather etc.).There need to be more processing infrastructures to make these Emu products attractive and gain market values which perhaps may come up in the Emu propagating locations through joint venture activities to support Emu farmers for economical values.

Processing activities for skin, oil, feather and also for meat (if desired) is now highly essential for boosting such commercial projects. Systematic collections of raw outputs like emu fat, feather, skin etc., are needed and also link with such processing units, so that quality of each commercial output can be preserved for developing final valuable products for consumers as expected. Such chain linkages are not visible widely with better technology so as to translate in to attractive ventures. Emu meat processing has also to be planned along with collection of other outputs so that the meat can be marketed gradually in the demanded markets. There are reports available that some restaurants are now serving Emu meat preparations and getting popular but to locate volume of the market we need to have processing technology involved in Emu sector. Other possibilities of common platforms for Emu propagation for commercial viability would be to support regular production and marketing introducing integration programs which may attract investors in this sector.

Key Words: Emu chicks, hypo-allergenic oil, EMU farming, Golden bird, Biosecurity measures