Cobb 500 forging ahead in Syria - EU - A new agreement to expand production of Cobb 500 parent stock in Syria to around 800,000 a year has been signed by the Alyarmouk Poultry Grandparents Company and Cobb Europe.

The company - to be known generally as Cobb Syria - is a new venture between Alyarmouk for Poultry, Alamin for Poultry and Veterinary Pharmaceutical Products and Yousfan for Poultry. It will be supplying Cobb 500 in both Syria and the Lebanon.

The agreement was signed at a seminar in Damascus attended by the Syrian Ministry of Agriculture as well as senior personnel from Cobb Europe and Cobb Syria.

"We are delighted to see the growing success of the Cobb 500 in Syria," says Cobb Europe director Ronald Lelieveld. "This is an important development for both Cobb Syria and our company, building on our business in the Middle East."

Largest shareholder in the new company is the Alyarmouk for Poultry Company which was established by Rasmy Shoubash in 1965 as a small family business to produce broilers. At that time day-old chicks were being imported from Turkey or Lebanon, with broilers mainly sold live in traditional local markets.

A few years later Mr Shoubash established one of the first chicken processing plants in Syria. Then in 1997 a new processing facility was inaugurated with a capacity of 2000 birds / hour, with a further processing and added value division added in 2001.

With increasing demand for day-old chicks through the 1980s, Mr Shoubash started a broiler breeder operation, placing his first flock of 8000 Cobb 500 parents in 1990. A hatchery with a capacity of eight million chicks / year began production in 1994, and now a breeder hatchery with a capacity of four million parents / year is under construction.

Alyarmouk has been responsible for distribution of Cobb 500 parent stock in Syria since 1996, and last year some 400,000 Cobb parents were sold accounting for around 20 per cent of the Syrian market.

Since the retirement of Mr Shoubash in 1993, his seven sons have all been involved in different sectors of the business, with the new grandparent operation directed by Redwan Shoubash and Dr Riad Kussaibati, who had been involved with his own broiler and layer activities before becoming associated with Alyarmouk in 1991.

Alamin for Poultry and Veterinary Pharmaceutical Products was established in 1986 in Hama, north of Damascus, by Dr Abd Alhamid Koujan to produce animal health products with today around 40 per cent of production exported to neighbouring countries.

In 1995 Dr Koujan began his broiler breeder business and started using the Cobb breed in 1999. Capacity of his four farms and hatchery is now more than 40,000 parent stock / year.

Yousfan for Poultry Company, also based in Hama, was founded in 1980 by Dr Ahmad Yousfan for producing broilers. Now with six breeder farms and two hatcheries, the company is placing more than 60,000 parent stock a year and has been working with Cobb since 2002. The company also produces broilers through contract operations and independent producers.

Source: Cobb - 5th January 2005