Executive Summary:
‘CORNSILO Animal Feed’ is a commercially packaged silage business in Bangladesh. The business aims to provide good-quality feed to animals, especially dairy and beef cattle, throughout the year and solve the problem of getting nutritious animal feed available in the rainy season and in unfavorable environments like floods, cyclones, etc. The startup provides a combination of silage and probiotics as palatable animal feed that meets the all-nutritional needs of animals, increases digestive efficacy, and increases the production (high milk and meat production) of animals.
Name of the business: CORNSILO Animal Feed
Business Type: Agricultural Service
Location: Monirampur, Jashore, Bangladesh.
Owner/Manager: Farzana Yeasmin Lia
Mobile number: 01908202115
Email: cornsilo@gmail.com
Required Assistance: 5 production staffs
Product: Silage feed (mixture of silage and probiotics) (made from maize)
Target Market:
- Agro-farm
- Dairy farm
- Beef cattle farmers
- Goat/Sheep farmers
- Buffalo farm
- Equine owners
- Livestock farmers
Growth Potential:
- Extension of our target market by exporting our products in the areas of Bangladesh and neighbouring countries.
- Expansion of business by providing diversified products of silage.
- Through this business extra forage crops are used and reducing wastage of raw materials.
- Application of advanced technology (Machinery & other technology) in preparing the feed helps to get quality food with the shortest time and labour cost.
- As an easily long-term storable product, silage production can solve the problem of getting quality feed and reduce the shortage of animal feed in unfavourable environments like rainy seasons, floods, stroms, etc.
- There is a great opportunity for employment generation through this business in rural areas.
- There is a possibility of integration with other sectors like dairy, animal health, and livestock feed.
Financial requirements and their utilisation:
- 5 acres of land are used for growing maize and processing silage.
- Capital investment is required to purchase different machines, like tractors, harvesters, and weigh machines, and to also construct bunkers or pits for the ensiling of silage.
- Funds are required to be utilised in operating costs for seeds, fertilisers, pesticides, molasses, probiotic preparation, plastic polythene sheets, labour wages, and utilities (water, electricity).
- Funds are also utilised for the costs of packaging, transportation, and marketing silage to target customers.
- After some initial investments, the business will take some loans from banks (Agrani Bank, Jashore) and offer its own agricultural land as collateral to run the business.
Financial Plans:
Initial Investment: 15,000,00 taka
Break-even point: Within 10 months
Forecast of sales and profit:
Periods of forecast: January–December (2024)
Product: Silage feed (mixture of silage and probiotic preparations; made from maize)
Selling price: 11 taka/kg = 11,000 taka/tonne
Average selling production volume: 30 tonnes/month
Total annual sales revenue: 3,960,000 taka
Total annual cost: 3,287,869 taka
Profits Forecast = (3,960,000-3,287,869) = 672,131 taka/year
Channels of marketing and sales:
- Direct sales to farmers
- Partnership with agricultural dealers or co-operatives (intermediaries)
- Through online platforms like Facebook, digital marketing, etc.
- From local farm supply stores
- Government and institutional sales
Business Description:
‘CORNSILO Animal Feed’ is a commercially packaged silage business located in Monirampur, Jashore, Bangladesh, founded in January 2024 by a veterinarian, Farzana Yeasmin Lia. The business aimed to provide good-quality feed to animals, especially dairy cattle, beef cattle, and other livestock, throughout the year. By offering high-quality diversified silage feed (a mix of silage and probiotics) with an enhanced nutritional profile, the business can quickly win over customers. The founder is a skilled veterinarian and has knowledge about animal nutrition and animal feed formulation. The employees working here are also given adequate training to ensure providing quality feed.
Target Market:
- Agro-farm
- Dairy farm
- Beef cattle farmers
- Goat/Sheep farmers
- Buffalo farm
- Equine owners
- Livestock farmers
Mission Statement: “Our mission is to provide quality, easily available animal feed as silage, which enhances the nutritional profile and improves animal production, as well as reducing the animal feed shortage in our country.”
Vision Statement: “To spread the diversified quality products of silage in every corner of the world and become a leading silage provider all over the world.”
Business objectives:
- To provide highly palatable and nutritious-quality feed as silage.
- To provide quality, diversified products as a mixture of silage and probiotics.
- To provide high-quality dry feed to animals.
- To provide value-added services.
- To improve animal health.
- To improve the milk and meat production of animals.
- To reduce the feed shortage of animals in an unfavourable environment.
Competitive analysis:
Different silage business providers play an important role in meeting all the demands for quality animal feed in Bangladesh. They are: Rupai silage, Smart Agropark, Safina silage, Silopac cattle feed, etc. The competitive analysis of Rupai silage, Silopac cattle feed, and Cornsilo animal feed is as follows:
- The target customers of both are the same, but the customer base of rupai silage and silopac cattle feed is greater than that of cornsilo animal feed.
- Rupai silage provides silage and its associated products (silage sheet, additives, etc.); silopac cattle feed provides silage, TMR, and concentrate; but my business provide silage feed (Mixture of silage & Probiotic preparations).
- Having diversified products and uses of advanced machinery to process the product, competitors stake an advantage in distribution channels.
Market research and industry analysis:
The most suitable customers for our business are dairy and agro-farmers. Nowadays, grazing land is decreasing day by day, and scarcity of quality animal feed occurs in rainy seasons and unfavourable environments like storms, floods, etc. In this situation, silage is in great demand as an animal feed in Bangladesh. Our business provides quality silage feed, which consists of a mixture of silage and probiotics that attracts customers’s attention by improving animal health and production. By enhancing its nutritional profile and providing quality, balanced nutrition to animals, the business has recently won over customers and is increasing its customer base day by day. There is a great opportunity to grow the company in the future. The business has innovative marketing strategies to promote it and great growth potential in recent times. The growth potential of the business is:
- Extension of target market by exporting our products and providing silage as an easily available quality balanced animal diet in the areas of Bangladesh and neighbouring countries where there is a growing dairy and livestock industry with a shortage of local silage production.
- After completing the demand for quality, diversified products of a mixture of silage and probiotics, the business will increase its diversification by combining silage with other ingredients like grains (corn), protein, minerals, vitamins, prebiotics, and probiotics as a single feed mix (TMR) for animals. By developing diversified products of silage, we can enhance nutritional capacity, which can strengthen competitive position of the business.
- Providing value-added services by using additional forage crops without wasting any part of the crop.
- Application of advanced technology (Machinery & other technology) in preparing the feed helps to get quality food with the shortest time and labour cost.
- As an easily long-term storable product, silage production can solve the problem of getting quality feed and reduce the shortage of animal feed in a given area and in unfavourable environments like rainy seasons, floods, storms, etc.
- There is a great opportunity for employment generation through this business in rural areas.
- There is a possibility of integration with other sectors like dairy, animal health, and livestock feed.
Market research suggests that our business will have good prospects in the future.
Market Strategy of the business:
- Processing and providing products as per customer preferences and demand.
- Bringing diversification in products to get customer attention.
- Building strong relationships with customers by providing quality products.
- Evaluating the competitive analysis of popular silage production businesses and making up the service gap.
- Profitable costs should be set based on production costs and market demand.
- To advertise and promote the market, different activities like creating an official website, creating social media sites (Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and LinkedIn), and doing digital marketing can be done.
- Attending in various exhibitions.
- Collaboration with different agricultural farms, veterinarians etc.
SWORT analysis:
Strengths:
- Quality, diversified products
- Higher cost efficiency
- Strong customer relationships and customer base
- Having high demand in local areas.
- Innovative market strategy
Weakness:
- Limited company recognition and awareness as a newly started business.
- Lack of adequate funding.
- Limited high-quality machinery.
- As a new starter, I lack experience in identifying the risk of silage production.
- There is a great challenge in scaling up production to meet growing demand due to insufficient infrastructure and machinery.
Opportunities:
- Consistent demand for Seasonal advantage, having a nutritional profile, and long-term storage capacity
- Export possibilities
- Employment generation
- Integration possibilities
- Expansion of business by producing quality, diversified products.
- Providing value-added service by using additional forage and reducing waste.
- Opportunities through the use of advanced technology
- Creative innovations in silage production technique and the production of diversified products.
Threats:
- As a demanded product, there are many competitors available in the market.
- Reliance on weather conditions.
- Ensuring a consistent quality of silage
- Pests can impact crop yield.
- Regulation of operating and transportation costs
The Team:
- Founder/Manager: Farzana Yeasmin Lia
- Production Staff: 05
Marketing Plans:
Product: Silage feed (mixture of silage and probiotics) (made from maize)
Target Customer:
- Agro-farm
- Dairy farm
- Beef cattle farmers
- Goat/Sheep farmers
- Buffalo farm
- Equine owners
- Livestock farmers
Location: Monirampur, Jashore, Bangladesh.
A marketing plan involves some activities, including:
Promotion:
- Recognise the business through online platforms (Facebook, LinkedIn) by raising awareness of how silage improves animal nutrition and reduces crop waste.
- Through digital marketing.
- By participating in different exhibitions
- By collaborating with agricultural farms, veterinarians, etc.
- By offering free webinars or consultations to attract customers.
Distribution:
- Efficient transportation facility to provide products to customers on time.
a proper storage facility to ensure the consistent quality of products for customers. - Establishing distribution routes according to the target market.
Offering flexible delivery services to customers.
Advertising:
- Firstly, identify the target audience and recognise our products through advertising.
- creating an official website
- creating social media sites (Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and LinkedIn)
- Through digital marketing
Customer relations: Customer relations can be built up through these processes:
- Regular communication with customers.
- Recognising the product and raising awareness about its effectiveness among customers
- Ensure the quality of products for customers.
- Resolving any issues with customers quickly
- Awarding loyal and regular customers with discounts, special offers, etc.
Operational Plans:
- Five acres of agricultural land are used to produce maize with the help of two labourers.
- After the cultivation of corn, harvest the fodder with a harvester machine and chop (about 1-3 cm) the fodder into small pieces with a silage chopper.
- Then construct a bunker, and chopped forage is kept in a layer (10–15 cm) in the bunker. Then add 1% molasses uniformly on a layer, and then add silage inoculants as a probiotic preparation. Thus, repeat the process of layering until the bunker is filled.
- After that, use a tractor or roller to compact each layer to remove air pockets.
- Then 1000-gauge, 3-roll polythene sheets are used to cover the bunker, and the edges of the polythene sheets are sealed with overweight sandbags or heavy materials.
- After 3-6 weeks, the polythene sheets are removed, and the silage is packaged in a 50-kg bag. The bag is weighed on a weigh machine, and the bag is sealed airtightly.
- After packaging, the bags of silage are transported by truck to the target customers.
- Monitoring is important during processing, compaction, and packaging to ensure a quality feed.
Financial Plans:
Initial Investment: 15,000,00 taka
Loan from Agrani Bank (own agricultural land as collateral)
Startup costs:
Fixed costs: 707,000 taka
Variable costs: 2,580,869 taka
Total annual cost: 3,287,869 taka
Selling price: 11 taka/kg = 11,000 taka/tonne
Average selling production volume: 30 tonnes/month
Total annual sales revenue: 3,960,000 taka
Profits Forecast = (3,960,000-3,287,869) = 672,131 taka/year
Break-even point: Within 10 months
Conclusions:
Nowadays, the silage production business is a profitable business in Bangladesh. ‘Cornsilo Animal Feed’ provides quality feed that attracts customers attention. The business has innovative marketing strategies to promote it and great growth potential in recent times. There is a great opportunity to rise the company by providing diversified products of silage to customers in the future.