History and current situation of commercial ostrich farming in Mexico

Abstract

As in many other countries, in Mexico, the ostrich aroused the interest of public and private entities for its broad productive qualities and quality of its products. The objective of the present study was to describe the history of ostrich introduction in Mexico as a kind of commercial interest, from the arrival of the first birds to the current farms. In 1988 the first farm was established, then a series of farms of significant size were appearing, all of them focused their business on the sale of breeding stock, a business that was profitable during the heyday of the specie in the country (1998-2008). The main client was the government that acquired ostriches to distribute them among a large number of new farmers. When the introduction into the activity of government and private individuals was no longer attractive, the prices of the breeders fell and the sector collapsed because the farms were inefficient and the infrastructure and promotion sufficient to position the ostrich products were not produced on the national or export market. In 2016 it was known that about 30 farms remained in the activity, of which 20 were located and provided information for this study. The farms that remained in the activity continued with significant difficulties in terms of their productivity, however, they had managed to mitigate part of the problem by sharing production practices among themselves and going to their counterparts abroad through digital media. On the commercial side, they had managed to develop standardized products using maquiladora companies, and placed them in niche markets that paid for higher prices than those that are paid for conventional substitutes. In the case of ostrich, in Mexico and many other countries, the sector failed because the market demand response was overestimated and the farmers ventured into the activity without adequate knowledge bases, infrastructure, and institutional support. These findings could be referred to many other species of nascent interest.