Overview

Overall considerations, general assumptions, and general observations include:

1. Key characteristics of a “feasible” business plan

· The proposed plan must be technically viable, economically feasible, and environmentally sound.

· The risks must be tolerable to the investors, lenders, and participants and the anticipated rewards must be sufficiently attractive to the investors and participants.

2. An economically sustainable meat business

· The business must encompass a reliable supply of livestock and other inputs that can be sustained over the project life, and there must be sufficient profit or other compensation to ensure satisfactory financial performance of the business.

· Like any business plan, the “bottom line” is… the bottom line. The enterprise needs to make economic sense to all parties (i.e., each participant needs an acceptable margin and an acceptable level of risk).

3. Current supply & demand considerations

· It appears that on each of the main islands in the Marianas (Guam, Rota, Saipan, and Tinian) the current supply of animals is roughly in balance with the current informal demand for (and consumption of) unregulated meat products for fiestas and other personal consumption.

· Thus, any re-direction of animals to a commercial slaughtering operation would be disruptive to the existing informal market and may constitute only a temporary supply.

· Thus, any significant-scale commercial meat business will require a corresponding and concurrent increase in livestock production on the island(s).

4. Cattle vs. Swine vs. Small Ruminants such as Goats

· The build-up of a swine supply (or a goat supply) would take less time than a beef supply. Significantly increasing the herd size of beef cattle on an island would require careful planning and coordination and would likely take 3 to 5 years; significantly increasing the number of swine could take 1 to 2 years.

· In addition, swine production can be accomplished in enclosed or confined feeding facilities, requiring much less land area than pasture-grown livestock. But one trade-off is animal feed… pastured animals obtain most or all of their feed from forage crops, whereas confined animals require feed to be brought into the production facility (whether imported or locally produced).

5. Geographic and demographic characteristics of the islands

· Click here to see a graphic of land area, population, and population density for each of the islands; for comparison purposes, data for Oahu, Maui, and the Big Island are included.

· Of the four main islands in the Marianas, Guam has the largest population, whereas Saipan has the highest population density.

5. Overall approach to analyzing a slaughterhouse / meat business on one of the Mariana islands

The following steps are excerpted from the "Resource Guidebook: A guide to Buidling, Upgrading or Expanding a Small Meat Processing Facility in Iowa", by Iowa State University (April 2010, xxxxxxxxxxx)

· The following steps are excerpted from the .