Overall considerations, general assumptions, and general observations include:
· 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.
· 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).
· 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).
· 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).
· 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
· Of the four main islands in the Marianas, Guam has the largest population, whereas
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 .