Kerala Feeds marks ‘Regular’ presence in goat feed market

Kerala Feeds Ltd emphasised its presence in the goat feed market by launching a low-cost product as part of the public sector company’s efforts to encourage goat farming in the State.

KFL Chairman K S Indusekharan Nair formally released ‘Kerala Feeds Regular’ at a function in Kollam, taking forward the PSU’s aim to promote a farming culture that combines activities such as vegetable growing, fisheries and poultry amid raising of cows and goats. The new product, manufactured at KFL’s plant in nearby Karunagappally, costs ₹480 a bag.

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KFL Managing Director B Sreekumar said goat raising was gaining importance today amid widespread encouragement for integrated farming. “We have launched ‘Kerala Feeds Regular’ to offset the absence of a low-cost product in the market. It contains nutrients essential for the growth of goats, their breeding and milk production,” he pointed out. “Already there is ‘Kerala Feeds Malabari Premium’ in the market, but that is to raise goats for their meat.”

The 1995-founded PSU has undergone several ups and downs and is today a catalyst in the State’s cattle-feed market. It buys 90 per cent of inputs from outside Kerala yet regulates the market price by checking steep climbs in the rates of products, Sreekumar said.

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Recent achievements

The company succeeded in getting close to its turnover target of ₹500 crore in the last financial year, clocking ₹496 crore despite the floods that year and subsequently the Covid-19 outbreak. From a cumulative loss of ₹64 crore in 20161-7, KFL made a profit of ₹2.37 crore in 2017-18. In the current fiscal, the PSU is running in a profit of ₹12 crore after the first three quarters, he said.

Indusekharan Nair highlighted the opening of a plant in Thodupuzha and fixing three shifts for KFL’s production unit in Kozhikode as the PSU’s recent achievements. The company’s daily production of cattle feed rose from 950 tonnes to 1,750 tonnes in the past five years.

With focus on improved milk yield and breeding, KFL comes up with high-protein products, which undergo a four-phase quality testing from the company gate to the manufacturing plant. KFL produces three varieties of cattle feed, besides feed for goat, hen, rabbit, and mineral-rich Keramin and haystacks.