Building Yen Thanh free-range chicken brand

Tay Thanh is a mountainous commune with a natural area of ​​over 2,000 hectares, of which 2/3 is mountainous area.To promote the potential and advantages of the locality, Tay Thanh is one of the communes chosen by Yen Thanh district as a pilot model in implementing the project.“Developing hill chicken farming associated with brand building and product consumption in the period 2017-2022”.

Thanh Turkey Chicken is mainly a breed of free-range chicken, hybrid chicken, and hybrid chicken with firm, delicious meat because it is raised freely. Each batch is raised for 4-6 months, the chickens reach an average weight of 2-2.5 kg/chicken when sold, and are sought out by traders in and outside the province to purchase the product.

The chicken raising movement has been developed in all 16 hamlets, creating a fairly concentrated breeding area. If previously each household only raised 30-50 chickens per batch, now the number of households raising 400-500 chickens has accounted for more than 30%, with many households investing in raising over 1,000 chickens per batch.

Mr. Chu Dinh Minh's family in Trung Bac hamlet, Quang Thanh commune (Yen Thanh) supplies the market with more than 5 tons of hill chicken each year. Photo: Thai Duong

According to Mr. Phan Duc Thuong - Chairman of Tay Thanh Commune People's Committee, after one year of implementing the project to develop hill chickens, the total chicken flock in the area has reached 200,000, reaching an output of 300 tons, bringing the production value to 27 billion VND. For the project to be effective, in addition to the district's financial support, in 2017, the commune allocated 150 million VND from the local budget to support model building, training in livestock and veterinary techniques for households; strengthengrassroots veterinary network...

TIn Quang Thanh commune, almost every household now raises chickens, including many households that raise them on a large scale for commercial purposes.

A typical example is Mr. Chu Dinh Minh's family, on an area of ​​4 hectares of hilly land planted with paper trees, under the green canopy of trees, his family invested in concrete piles and nets to raise 1,500,000 hybrid chickens per litter.

Mr. Minh said that his family used to raise chickens using semi-industrial methods, but due to high investment costs and difficult-to-sell products, the family switched to raising free-range chickens. Although raising chickens using this method takes a long time (5-6 months/batch), the breed can be controlled, the main food source is forest plankton, insects and agricultural by-products, so the chickens rarely get sick, and the cost is not much. According to the current price of 80,000-85,000 VND/kg, each chicken brings a profit of about 15,000 VND/kg.

The family of Mrs. Tran Thi Gia in Chau Thanh 2 hamlet, Tay Thanh commune - one of the households raising hill chickens on a large scale, using agricultural by-products to raise chickens. Photo: Thai Duong

To gradually develop and successfully build the Yen Thanh hill chicken brand, Mr. Nguyen Van Duong - Head of the district's Department of Agriculture and Rural Development affirmed that this is a new direction in shifting the local agricultural economic structure, aiming to promote the available potential of labor resources and land area.

In particular, to help hill chicken products dominate the market, along with implementing activities in the production chain, the district is calling on and attracting companies and businesses inside and outside the province to operate in the area, working with farmers to develop the field of hill chicken farming in the direction of VietGAP, in which priority is given to frozen food processing companies, purchasing products for people; at the same time, building purchasing points, strengthening management, attaching responsibility to maintaining and protecting the brand to each farming household...