Quail Rearing Taking Roost In East Coast

Eastern Region News

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January 28, 2009 17:43 PM

Quail Rearing Taking Roost In East Coast


KUALA LUMPUR, Jan 28 (Bernama) -- Quail rearing is taking roost in the East Coast, with breeders at Felda Jengka 15, Bandar Jengka, Pahang, boosting output to meet high demand for the game bird.

Since 1995, the demand for quail soared by 20 to 25 percent a year, the East Coast Economic Region secretariat said in a statement today.

It said under the ECER master plan, an economic activity to increase oil palm farmers' income is through the integration of livestock in the oil palm plantations.

"Felda farmers have taken this one step further to tap into rising demand for quail meat and eggs," it said.

ECER said one of the settlers, Samad Puhalus, 56, who has been rearing quails for eight years, says quail rearing is a lucrative business, spurring him to increase his monthly output to 10,000 birds.

"I used to rear quails on a part-time basis to meet my family's needs. After a year, consumer demand prompted me to commercialise my quail rearing.

"Quail rearing is proving to be quite lucrative, equal to tending other animals. The support given by Felda is also very encouraging," he said.

Felda has loaned Samad an initial sum of RM9,000 to start the quail business and the amount was repaid in six years, ECER said.

"A ready-to-market bird can fetch between RM13 and RM15 a kilo, quail eggs are sold at 10 sen an egg while young chicks are sold between 60 sen and RM2.50 per bird," it said.

Demand for quails on the international level has also been rising. In Abu Dhabi, the Al Semman Farm in Al Ain is producing 15,000 quails per week, but says it will have to increase production by more than three times to satisfy customer demand in the Emirates alone, it said.

The farm aims at increasing production to 50,000 per week and expects to reach 200,000 quails per month by end of this year.

"In France, Italy, the United States and several countries in South America such as Brazil and Chile, as well as throughout Asia, it is the meat that is consumed.

"It is particularly delicious when charcoal-broiled. One company in Spain annually processes 20 million quails for meat," it said.

ECER said Malaysia has begun a project aimed at producing a new poultry bird, a cross between a cockerel and a hen quail.

Meanwhile, Zainal Mohd Noor from the Kuala Lumpur Veterinary Services Department is creating a strain that produces eggs of good quality and meat with the flavour of both parents, it said.

The new bird is intermediate in size between chicken and quail which is convenient because it is about right for an individual helping, it added.

-- BERNAMA