● Tamatave · Madagascar — Building since 2026

Better chicken
at a fair Malagasy price.

We’re building an integrated farming operation outside Tamatave. The goal is to bring down the cost of quality chicken in Madagascar without cutting corners on how it’s raised. Starting with one farm. Scaling to thirty.
First farmFanandrana, Toamasina
Capacity2,000 birds/mo
Network goal30 farms by Y5
Hen at sunrise on the red coast

FIG. 01 — Morning, Fanandrana

One farm well · then thirty · better chicken · fair price · raised right · fed on-farm · closed loops
The problem we’re working on

Madagascar earns local wages and pays international prices for chicken.

United Kingdom Reference

15 min

of work, at average wage, buys a kilogram of supermarket chicken in Britain today.

Madagascar Today

2 hr 14

of work, at average wage, for the same kilogram. Same product. Roughly the same price tag. The wages don’t match.

Local chicken price

13,000 – 25,000 Ar/kg

Tamatave market, May 2026

UK equivalent

£5 – 7 /kg

Major retailer average

Wage gap

difference

250 000 Ar vs £1,700/mo

What we’re doing

One farm, four production systems, closed loops.

Our model brings together four production systems on a single 10,000 m² plot in Fanandrana, near Tamatave. The point of the integrated design is feed cost — feed is 60–70% of what it takes to raise a chicken. If we produce a meaningful share of our protein on-farm at near-zero cost, the price the customer pays comes down without compromising quality.

The closed loop

chicken manure feeds the ponds pond water feeds the beds the beds feed the chickens

01 · Production

Twelve broiler houses

384 birds per house at 4 birds per m². 2,000 birds a month at full capacity.

Scale12 × 96 m²

02 · Production

Six layer houses

Eggs introduced in Year 2. Same module, different breed, separate run.

Year2026 — 2027

03 · Feed

Integrated feed production

Black soldier fly larvae, tilapia ponds for on-farm fish meal, azolla beds.

Target40% on-farm

04 · Soil

JADAM no-till beds

Growing forage and supplemental feed crops, fertilised by the system itself.

MethodJADAM · Korean natural farming

The blueprint

Twenty identical
houses, one blueprint.

Each chicken house is 16 metres by 6 — 96 square metres housing 384 birds at four birds per square metre. Mono-pitch roof for rainwater capture. Concrete block perimeter with a deep-litter bioactive floor. Fully demountable.

The same blueprint is what makes the next thirty farms possible. Once it works here, we can fund cooperative farmers to build the same module on their own land and repay the infrastructure cost from production.

Dimensions
16 × 6 m
Floor
96
Capacity
384 birds
Density
4 birds/m²
Roof
Mono-pitch
Floor system
Deep litter
The flock, today
Hen pecking the ground
Yellow chick
Two chicks side by side
Hens by the barn
Hen in sunrise mist
Flock at the barn
Where we are right now

A serious build, not a finished product.

We’re in the test phase — a trial flock is on site while the first modules go up. The team on the ground is small and growing. Here’s where things stand.

May 2026

Trial flock crosses day 60, weights tracking expected.

Average liveweight 1.42 kg, mortality 2.1%. Feed conversion 1.78. First grain harvest from the JADAM beds went into the layer mix.

May 2026

Houses 01–04 going up; concrete poured on slab 02.

Local team of seven on site. Mono-pitch trusses pre-fabricated in Tamatave to keep the module repeatable.

Apr 2026

Tilapia ponds stocked. Fish meal trial begins in June.

Two 80 m² ponds. Manure sluice from house 01 will feed pond 1 once the flock moves in. Pond water diverts to JADAM beds at week six.

Apr 2026

New head of farming operations joined.

Six years at Cooperative Antsiranana. Runs the day-to-day on site and is our point of contact for the cooperative network.

The five-year plan

One farm well.
Then we replicate it.

Now

Y01

First farm operational

500 birds/month ramping to 2,000. Trial flock + module 01 commissioning.

2026

Next

Y02

Layer houses introduced

Eggs added. Feed self-sufficiency tested at scale across both houses.

2027

Y03

Second site or first cooperative

Blueprint replicated off-site. First cooperative farmer signs on.

2028

Y04

Network begins

Three to five farms in the network. Shared logistics, shared feed.

2029

Goal

Y05

30 farms, 100K+ birds/yr

Cooperative network of farmers, one blueprint, one supply chain.

2030

The name

Meva.

/ˈme.va/ · adj.

From the Malagasy

“Meva means good, well, pleasant. It’s what we want the food to be. It’s what we want the work to be for the people doing it. And it’s what we want the price to feel like.”

Food
Raised slow, fed well, finished honest.
Work
A fair wage and a clean shift on the team.
Price
Within reach of a Tamatave kitchen, every week.