Ken Lewis spent a lot of time photocopying while in South America a couple of months ago.
The Birds Hill, Man. ostrich producer took 140 information kits on a trade mission. But he met so many people interested in ostriches that he could have used about 600.
For the past two weeks, some of the people Lewis met have been in Winnipeg for the Manitoba Ostrich Skills Training program, developed by the industry with help from the provincial government.
Lewis said teaching people from other countries the fundamentals of raising ostriches could prove to be a feather in the cap and coin in the pocket for Canadian ostrich farmers.
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Million dollar deal
Most students came to sign contracts for birds and get training to work with them. Some students wanted to buy 10 or 20 ostriches, but one group from Ecuador planned to spend about $1 million.
Students paid $3,000 for the not-for-profit course, but they get their money back when they buy ostriches.
Lewis said the group offering the training is competing with American, South African, French and Spanish groups to get into the fledgling South American ostrich industry.
“We blew them away with our full-package program,” he said, explaining the Canadian group won’t sell ostriches without making sure buyers know how to raise and market them.
Lewis said the group has been working on the course for more than a year. But interest really took off when he visited Brazil, Argentina, Chile, Ecuador and Colombia for two weeks in September with a Manitoba government trade mission.
Before he went, he told contacts to book small meeting rooms so he could give presentations on the big birds. At one stop in Ecuador, he expected 40 people but more than 100 showed up.
“All they did was put the word out that there was a Canadian ostrich producer coming to talk to them about the ostrich industry, and that was it, the room was full,” Lewis said.
Cattle producers are eyeing ostrich because of the Mercosur trade agreement that links most South American countries, he said.
Neighbors of Brazil and Argentina, two of the world’s largest cattle producers, are worried what will happen to their industries when trade barriers are relaxed.
“They’re all looking for an alternative to cattle and the ostrich is perfect,” Lewis said.
He said it would likely only cost about $50 to get an ostrich to the one-year slaughter age in South America because of the warm climate and cheap, plentiful alfalfa.
That’s a quarter of what it costs many Canadian producers, he said.
The group plans to run the course again in May. Lewis said more South Americans along with groups from China and the Philippines are already signed up.
