Egging on the brand

The industry has been sitting on the concept for some time, but it hasn8217;t hatched fully yet.

The industry has been sitting on the concept for some time, but it hasn8217;t hatched fully yet. For though branded eggs are slowly gaining currency, the supply shortage has led to their prices surging by 75 per cent in the past two years. 8220;There is a potential in the branded egg segment which has a premium in the market,8221; Gurgaon-based Keggfarms8217; Chairman Vinod Kapoor said.

Kapoor, who pioneered the branded egg concept in Delhi, said that the demand is too high to be met by his farm. The price of branded eggs has gone up to Rs 70 per dozen from Rs 40 a dozen during the past two years, he said, adding that Delhi consumes about 35 lakh eggs daily.

The National Egg Coordination Committee Chairman Northern Region Harish Juneja said the branded egg concept is slowly growing and 8220;it has a future8221;. However, the cost of packaging and commission are too high to reduce the retail price of branded eggs, he added.

Kapoor said he had developed a business model which focuses solely on rural India. 8220;We sell chicks to mother units in 11 states, mostly in eastern India, from where vendors take two- to three-month-old chickens and sell them to villagers who were earlier rearing desi local birds.8221;

Impressed by the Keggfarms8217; business model, a 50-member team of students from the Harvard Business School visited Kapoor8217;s poultry farm in Gurgaon. Unlike in the commercial poultry, the bird produced in the Keggfarms is used for both meat and laying eggs.

Daniel J. Isenberg, a senior lecturer at Harvard Business School, who led the students to Kapoor8217;s farm, said he was fascinated with the business model as it is only focused on rural India involving stakeholders such as villagers, vendors and women.

The chicken produced by Keggfarms look similar to the local birds. However, Juneja noted that in a commercial farm, the chicken lay as many as 300-325 eggs per year. 8220;We hope to get more money as these birds are said to lay 120 eggs compared to 20-25 by a desi chicken,8221; said Rehman Khan of Manakki village.