Rabbit Mathematics

3 Females + 1 Male = 3000 rabbits!

Four out of many that have turned pairs of rabbits into thousands of rabbits

Africa already boasts of a few rabbit farmers who started from nothing but have built remarkably successful rabbit farm businesses. Their success in spite of capital and skill challenges will inspire and encourage you to take action on your.

Four successful African Rabbit Farmers you need to know

Let’s meet them!

  

 

JF Rabbits (Nigeria)

JF Rabbits is a commercial rabbitry initiated with the sole aim of producing quality low cost meat to combat the rate of malnutrition in children and adults in the country Nigeria.

JF Rabbits is also the leading producer of quality NZW breeding stock in the country. Since its establishment in 2014, it has continued to produce meat rabbits, pet rabbits, science lab rabbits, rabbit urine and manure for the meat market and for farmers.

Presently, JF Rabbits has 100 productive does and 20 active bucks for its breeding stock, with monthly output of 800 fryers and 9600 fryers annually, making it one of the leading rabbit farmers in the country.

Alfred



According Alfred, the man who started it, he is passionate about what he does and he loves rabbits.

Over the years, JF Rabbits has faced some challenges which have limited to some extent its output figures and that have hindered it from performing optimally. These factors range from extreme weather conditions to lack of government support.

Despite these, JF Rabbits has not relented and has been going places no one would have ever imagined.

With a live fryer going for about N1,000, 9600 fryers pump in N9600000 annually. For Alfred, this is not a bad business at all as his enterprise keeps growing.

 

 

 

Farmer Brown (Ghana)

Adotei Brown (popularly known as ‘Farmer Brown’) quit his Civil Service job in 2002 to start his rabbit farm on a small scale with three does (female rabbits) and one buck (male).



Farmer Brown



With just about 10 Ghanaian Cedis (about $3), he reinvested all his profits into the business. Today, his farm grows nearly 3,000 rabbits every year and slaughters up to 500 every week for sale to grocery stores, restaurants and hotels. The average price for his rabbits is about 20 Ghana Cedis (about $6) and business is booming.

Farmer Brown has become a popular advocate for the consumption of rabbit meat in Ghana. He has a special eatery for rabbit meat on his farm, which attracts visitors, including tourists.

His eatery serves tasty rabbit meat in different forms:  grilled, smoked and cooked. He also has a thriving grasscutter (bush meat) farming business that runs side-by-side with the rabbit farm.

Farmer Brown has dedicated himself to training more young people in Ghana to take up rabbit farming. To assure a steady market for the young generation of farmers he trains, he buys mature rabbits from them to ensure they have a steady cash flow from the business.

Moses Mutua, CEO Rabbit Republic (Kenya)

Mr. Rabbit

Popularly known as ‘Mr. Rabbit’ in Kenya, Moses Mutua grew up in a poor family and couldn’t further his education because his family couldn’t afford to pay for it.

Although he always wanted to become a policeman, he never reached that dream. Instead he got a job as a security guard and worked at it for five years before he got fired.

Before he became Mr. Rabbit, Moses had already tried greenhouse farming, fish farming, organic farming, but settled on rabbits because they are the most lucrative domesticated animals in the world in terms of time, space utilization and profit margins.

Moses learned everything about rabbit farming from the internet (by using Google) and finally started a small rabbit farm with just six rabbits. That’s how his company, Rabbit Republic, was born.  (photo credit: nafis.go.ke)

Today, Rabbit Republic has a turnover that’s more than Sh10 million (about $100,000) and slaughters about 2,000 rabbits every month.

His business has attracted investors and Moses is currently developing a five-acre farm that will breed about 30,000 rabbits. The video below shows Mr. Rabbit in action on his farm as he explains the profitability of the rabbit farming business and why more entrepreneurs should seriously consider it.

Rabbit Republic now has a network of over 1,000 rabbit farmers across Kenya who receive free training and support and in turn sell their mature rabbits to the company.

This expansion has paid off as Rabbit Republic has now opened shop in neighboring countries; Uganda and Tanzania. But that’s not all. By mid-2015, the company plans to export one ton of rabbit sausages to the US and Europe where the demand for healthy meats (like rabbits) is growing.

Mr. Rabbit wants to make Kenya a major player in the untapped global rabbit meat market. Currently, China, Italy, Spain and France are the leading producers of rabbit meat which has earned a reputation as a ‘super meat’ due to its nutritional and health benefits.
Rabbit Republic is now partnering with universities and local/international organizations to train more youths and women on rabbit farming as a means to alleviate poverty.

Charles Kamau (Kenya)

Charles started a small rabbit farm in 2004 to provide organic fertilizer for his vegetable farm. He lost his job in the hospitality industry and had to do something to feed his young family. His first attempt at raising rabbits was a disaster because he lost all his animals to diseases.



Charles

Despite his frustration, he did some basic research, learned from his mistakes and started again. This time, it was a huge success and he even had to demolish part of his house to create more space for his thriving rabbit business.

Charles Kamau stocks a wide range of rabbit breeds which he sells to new farmers and also slaughters rabbits which we supplies to local meat markets.

His top customers include foreign nationals living in Kenya, restaurants and five-star hotels. In fact, he once got an order from China to supply a consignment of 22,000 pieces of rabbit fur but was unable to meet that huge request. This just shows how big the demand for rabbit products is.

Charles says he is now able to save more than Sh20,000 (about $220) every month from his rabbit business. The business also provides money to feed his family and pay school fees for his children who attend private schools.

A few years ago, he was able to buy some plots of land in Nairobi (Kenya’s capital city) and recently bought a car and a 12-acre property where he is planning to establish a much larger rabbit farm.



 Francis Wachira (Kenya)

Kiroko Enterprise farm in Nairobi

 

“I don’t want to go on this journey alone. I want to encourage others to go with me.” ­­­– ­­­­­­­ Francis Wachira, The Rabbit King

Francis Wachira is the farmer there. He grows many different kinds of vegetables to eat and sell. He also keeps goats for milk and meat. But people in Nairobi call him “the Rabbit King.” That is because he sells rabbits for people to eat. They are a main part of the business. Wachira’s farm is very successful.

“People come here from as far away as Tanzania, Uganda, and Sudan, to see what I am doing,”
Ten years ago, Francis planted a few vegetables on an abandoned playground in the neighbourhood of Makadara. Today, he cultivates dozens of crops, and raises geese, guinea pigs, chickens, goats, and – of course – rabbits. Francis tends to as many as 500 rabbits, which he sells to supermarkets and hotels for their meat.

Originally from the Mount Kenya region, Francis is now making his living as an organic farmer just a few kilometres from the skyscrapers of downtown Nairobi, a metropolis of more than three million people.