How to Start an Organic Egg Production Business

Introduction to start an Organic Egg production business in India

The Organic egg is the most nourishing, yet relatively less expensive, unadulterated natural food, with great biological value and digestibility coefficient. It is the golden customary, to measure the quality and dietary value of any other foodstuffs. Due to the continuous increase in the consumers’, awareness, along with the economic standards the demand for healthier and value-added foods; neglectful of their costs.

A guide for how to start an Organic Egg production business

Designer eggs/ meat and organic eggs/ meat are among such value-added products of poultry source. You can earn good profits by starting the organic egg production business. This blog provides you all the details regarding How to start an Organic egg production business.

Market potential to start an Organic Egg production business

The global market for organic eggs is quite demanding and fast-growing because of the presence of various health factors. Hence organic egg production business has good demand in the market. The highest demand for them is because of the high nutrient factors in it. Organic egg production is free from all the usage of artificial hormones, drugs, even antibiotics, and also from few practices of factory farming.

The organic eggs contain lots of vitamins like vitamin A, Vitamin E, vitamin K, vitamin B6, minerals, and essential amino acids along with lots of zinc. It also has lots of omega-3-fatty acids which help to lower the cholesterol content in the body. It is also rich in choline which is healthy for liver function and brain function.

Market potential of Organic Egg production.

The organic eggs poultry is fed with the organic feed and antibiotics are given only when the poultry is infected. In the organic egg production, the laying chicken is allowed to access to outdoors and the chickens are not raised in the cages. Flocks will have natural molting and the induced molting is not at all allowed in the organic egg production business.

Organic Egg production business plan

Organic egg production business plan is a holistic approach including

a) Certification by the licensing authorities
b) Housing and management,
c) Welfare and health cover and
d) Feeding procedures

Necessities vary from country to country but usually involve a set of manufacture standards for organic egg production. Eggs produced under a free-range system, open yard system, cage-free system, and country eggs are not essentially organic eggs. They should be produced in certified organic farms only.

License, registration, and permissions required to start an Organic Egg production

You can operate an organic egg production in the form of a sole proprietorship or along with multiple owners as Private Limited Company which is also beneficiary in terms of tax. Before registering this you first must check the pros and cons attached for each category and then determine the appropriate one based on the conditions that are suitable to you.

Before applying for the license for organic poultry you must be ready with the following documents carefully-

Certificate of company registration
Pan card
Insurance policy
Poultry farm business permit
Business plan
Business license
Animal care standards
Aadhar card
Voter ID
Driving license
Ration card
Business agreement
Memorandum of association
Articles of association
NOC (No Objection Certificate)
Bank statement

Based on the kind of organic poultry farm business, you must provide the farm with vaccines thus it is essential to get the certification. But ensure you are only rearing birds and just selling eggs so you don’t need the certification, but needs awareness.

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Insurance for Organic Egg poultry farm

It is very significant to avail insurance for your business particularly against diseases such as salmonella and various hazardous possibilities for your poultry farm. These are very dangerous, and the outbreak of one disease could affect the entire farm at a time. Thus take direction from the professionals. Below are some of the possible insurances that can be obtained-

Pollution liability coverage
Animal protection /cruelty coverage
Equipment breakdown coverage
General liability
Poultry farm insurance
Worker’s compensation

Licenses required to start an Organic Egg poultry farm in India

These include a few of the licenses from the local establishments or state government of India. These include-

No objection certificate through the local government in that region wherein you plan to start a poultry farm.
NOC from the pollution board of that region.
Electricity provision by verifying if you need a transformer which is determined based on the farm size.
Permissions for the water supply that should be taken from the groundwater department

You may easily avail of the permission if you can post the details and or online.

For organic egg production business, you need to register with FSSAI for food license which is effective for five years.

FSSAI Registration license is provided when the turnover is less than 12 lakhs
FSSAI State license is availed when the turnover is greater than 12 lakhs
FSSAI Central license is sought when the turnover is greater than 20 crores

Supervision and reporting

After inspecting all the documents and permissions that you have provided for getting the license and after careful checking by the field officers the license is provided to initiate the organic poultry based on farm size.

Single window clearance

Recently the government has announced a single-window clearance system to boost the entrepreneurs so that they can have clearances regarding power, finance, licenses, etc. within the given timeline at once. This would aid them to have the permissions and also it will reduce the time and documentation.

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Poultry farm distance from the village

It must be located 500 meters far from the village and about 200 meters from the main road.

Distance between poultry farms and residences

It must be at least 1000 meters far from other poultry farms. Poultry farms must be maintained about 5-6 Km away from the residential areas.

Housing and Management in Organic egg production business

The place used for organic poultry farms must not be employed with chemical fertilizers and pesticides for a minimum of three consecutive years.

For organic egg production, the laying hens should not be raised in cages, and are reared on deep litter houses only, with open outdoors having pasture; usually double the size of the pen.
Maximum flock size differs from the country, from 4,000 -6,000birds /sheds and around 16,000-30,000 hens on the farm. No such condition in India.
Stocking density 7 hens per m² covered shed area and same more area of open space per hen. The open area should be safe by perfect wire fencing; with a fishnet on top for the prevention of wild birds’ entry into this region and to stop hens going away from the farm.
Place one nest hole for every 8 hens, within the enclosed shed, for easy collection.
Provide a perch length of 10cm for each hen at 60 cm height. This will also decrease congestion and overcrowding.
Provide 45 cm X 60 cm pop-holes for every 250 hens, for free access between pen and free-range. The pop holes should be closed at night, to prevent predators from entering the house.

Welfare and health cover in Organic Egg production

Organic egg production certification also needs maintenance of basic animal welfare. The birds must be allowed to carry out their elementary behavioral requirements, with sufficient free movement, freshwater, fresh air, nest boxes, natural daylight, perches, and enough lying and/or resting regions.

Only natural molting can be done within the flock or forced molting is not allowable.
The Indian Organic Standards still permit beak trimming as a means to reduce any injury to the birds, but not permitted in few countries like Europe.
Vaccinations will be approved out up to 18 weeks, for conventional layers. Later vaccination will be done if diseases are noticed, predictable to be a problem in the province of the farm, or where these infections cannot be controlled by other management methods. Legally obligatory vaccinations are allowed, but genetically engineered vaccines are forbidden.
Deworming is allowed, in case the worm burden is high. Recommended mostly the use of safe herbal dewormers and parasiticides such as Neem oil, Bitter gourd, Kamala, Panchagavya, etc.
Stop labeling eggs as organic for 2-3 weeks after deworming with synthetic wormers or when hens are cured with antibiotics or medicines for any contagious disease, based on the drug.

Feeding procedure in Organic Egg production

These hens should be fed with organic feed only, using certified organic feed ingredients such as maize, soya, etc. from organic farms only. They must not have genetically modified organisms (GMO) crops and synthetic fertilization for three years before its certification for organic usage. When organic raw materials are scarce, then the traditional feed ingredients that are free from pesticide residues are taken that too up to 30%.

The open area should have good edible organic green pasture and insecticide or herbicide is not sprayed on the lawn grass. If the birds do not have access to the green pasture, then it is better to provide organically grown freshly chopped Lucerne (alfalfa) or any other greens at the rate of around 50 g/hen /day, to obtain rich orange color to the yolk, naturally.

Animal by-products like MBM, fish, etc. are not permissible in the feed.
Human sewage sludge fertilizer is prohibited for the cultivation of plants, pasture, or even for feeding the animals.
Vitamins, amino acids, organic minerals, herbal preparations are acceptable in the organic feed.

For Organic egg production, the feed should be free of antibiotics (AGP), any medicines, and many more synthetic performance accompaniments. However, antibiotics can be used while a contagious disease outbreak. But, the eggs formed during this treatment period as well as for about 2-3 weeks, based on the antibiotic, should be sold as with tags as regular eggs but not as organic.