Cockfight is popular in Pakistan but what if you breed giant $4,000 Brazilian roosters?
Business
This special breed was developed in late 1980, early 1990s
LAHORE/BRASILIA (Web Desk/Reuters) – Cockfight attracts hundreds – in some cases thousands – of people in Pakistan being a popular sport, especially in rural areas, where a strong and agile rooster or cock is considered as matter of pride. It also involves money in the shape of betting and prizes.
There are 50 species of fighting cocks in Pakistan and their owners treat them like kings with special diets and massage. Among the most popular species are Jagiri, Mianwali, Amrohi, Rampori and Jhal Magsi.
Meanwhile, some even go for producing crossbreeds with the hybrids supposed to be tough fighters.
But what about breeding giant roosters that can help you fetch money to the tune of thousands of dollars? All you need is transport a few birds called Indian Giants or their eggs from Brazil to start a business.
Indian Giant is a breed of domestic chicken originally developed in Brazil. It is one of the largest chicken breeds in the world, especially in terms of height, and had originated in Brazil around the late 1980s or early 1990s.
Now just read this Reuters report to understand how you can steal this idea from a Brazilian farmer.
A PROFITABLE HOBBY
When farmer Rubens Braz started breeding Brazilian chickens, he had no idea how big the operation – or the birds – would get.
Some twenty years later, he now raises giant roosters for small-scale farming and hobby purposes in central Brazil and is making a living from surging sales across the country.
His birds, called "Giant Indian Roosters," can grow over 120 centimetres (47 inches) tall.
The gargantuan fowl, which is awaiting formal recognition as a new breed, can fetch as much as 20,000 reais ($4,000) each, Braz said, from some of the thousands of interested breeders in the country.
"It was a hobby at first," he said in an interview at one of his nurseries in the state of Goias. "Then other breeders got interested and today we have a commercial operation."
His firm, called Avicultura Gigante, is still a niche player in Brazil, the world's largest poultry exporter and home to major meatpackers including BRF and JBS.
As the global avian flu crisis has put a damper on business this year, limiting the transport of live animals in Brazil, Braz said he has focused on supplying fertilized eggs to nearby farmers. His own farms house some 300 birds.
While that is not enough to serve the meat industry, he said there is plenty of demand from collectors and farmers looking to bolster their flocks of "caipira" chickens, or cage-free animals raised on small properties mainly for subsistence purposes.
