Since starting in business 30 years ago, the family-owned poultry company Avícola Urkupiña has grown its activities from small-scale chicken farming to production across the entire poultry value chain. This year, the company has established its first single-stage broiler hatchery in Bolivia supported by Petersime and Corpagro. Avícola Urkupiña is also already planning its next steps to expand into a complete and self-sufficient integration.
Project info
Getting acquainted with single-stage incubation
Situated in the Santa Cruz department in Bolivia, Avícola Urkupiña has delivered unprecedented growth since first entering the poultry market in 1993. In the past decades, the company’s prime focus has been to grow its production output and quality to continuously serve customers better. With the installation of its first hatchery for broiler chickens, Avícola Urkupiña is now ready to reap the benefits of single-stage incubation with Petersime’s intelligent hatchery solutions.
The new broiler hatchery, operational since October of this year, will produce 220,000 day-old chicks per week. Being a greenfield project, the hatchery was fully designed by Petersime and the project managed by Petersime’s local agent Corpagro. Avícola Urkupiña has installed 12 X-Streamer™ 12S HD setters and 6 X-Streamer™ 4H HD hatchers – all equipped with Embryo-Response Incubation™ technology – and a tailor-made HVAC system designed and installed by Petersime. Thanks to the intelligent Eagle Trax™ hatchery software, every incubator in the hatchery is also seamlessly connected and data driven.
Since it was the hatchery staff’s first experience with single-stage incubation, the entire start-up period was closely guided by a team of Petersime specialists consisting of both technical and incubational profiles. Incubation Consultant Guillermo Reyes, Global Technical Supervisor Leonardo Guzmán and Field Service Engineers Raúl Paz and Jose Luis Romero considerably helped the local hatchery team in getting acquainted with single-stage incubation and preparing the first sets and hatches by providing comprehensive training and in-depth advice.
This led to a successful first take-off and hatch for Avícola Urkupiña as the hatchery reached 92.63% Hatch of Fertile. With no previous experience of single-stage incubation, the company was also very satisfied about the increased chick quality. Comparing previous multi-stage hatch results with the new results of the single-stage Petersime incubators, the number of A-grade chicks has significantly increased.
Avícola Urkupiña is well on its way to delivering premium quality broiler chickens. “Choosing Petersime as our hatchery partner has meant we got a full solution that took all our requirements into consideration,” said Jhon Cors, co-owner of Avícola Urkupiña. “Petersime has been committed to advising and supporting us from A to Z through constant communication before, during and after installation. Working together with Petersime’s incubation specialists, we are confident that we will achieve the results to deliver superior chick quality, and with that, superior broiler performance.”
From small family business to integrated poultry company
Avícola Urkupiña was founded in La Porfía in the Santa Cruz de la Sierra department in 1993 by Gilberto Cors and his wife Petrona Vargas, and later joined by their son Jhon Cors. The activities initially occupied the small-scale production and slaughter of broiler chickens to sell locally. After ten years of substantial growth, the company decided to integrate its production towards technified broiler farms. Avícola Urkupiña also established its first balanced feed plant in 2005.
Having extended its market area to Montero, Santa Cruz and Cochabamba, Avícola Urkupiña decided to expand with breeder farms in 2020 and now its first broiler hatchery.
Owner Gilberto Cors explained: “Our vision for Avícola Urkupiña is to reach self-sufficiency for our production. By covering the entire poultry production value chain as we expand, we want to have better control over our quality within that chain and not depend on other suppliers.”
After completing this hatchery project, the Cors family is taking steps to further grow the company with plans to add a slaughter plant in the near future.
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