The Kudumbashree has opened a poultry processing plant at Kadhinamkulam in the district to give a boost to its Kerala Chicken project.
In the first phase, quality products under the brand ‘Kudumbashree Kerala Chicken’ will be marketed through supermarkets.
A mobile truck ‘Meat on wheels’ to make value-added chicken products available to more consumers will also be launched.
The plant has come up at Channankara in Kadhinamkulam on a 4.5-acre plot. It will have a processing capacity of 500 birds into meat in an hour. A veterinary doctor will conduct ante-mortem examination of chicks aged 1.5 months that are brought to the plant and only those that are completely healthy will be processed.
The processing will be done scientifically using various equipment and an overhead rail system in semi-automated poultry processing line. An elaborate cold-storage system has been set up at the plant to preserve chicken. Once the plant begins full operations, processed and frozen chicken meat and value-added products can reach the market.
At present, the chicken distributed to the 111 Kerala Chicken outlets in the State is through poultry farmers who are part of the project. The chicken meant for the processing plant will also come from the same farmers.
The plant was inaugurated by Chirayinkeezhu MLA, V. Sasi recently. Pothencode block panchayat president Hariprasad presided. Kudumbashree Broiler Farmers Producer Company Limited chief executive officer Sajeev Kumar A. explained the project.
Kudumbashree had launched Kerala Chicken in 2017 with the help of the Animal Husbandry department and KEPCO with the aim of ensuring that at least 50% of chicken in the domestic market in the State was produced and marketed here itself. All activities from production to sale are coordinated by the Kudumbashree Broiler Farmers Producer Company Ltd.
