Our activities & our expertises

Hatching

Hatching, Orvia’s core business, is the production and sale of day-old birds. Hatching eggs are collected from the breeding farms and brought every week to Orvia’s hatcheries for incubation. After hatching, the day-old birds are delivered to Orvia’s customers’ farms.

To meet the biosecurity and animal welfare requirements, Orvia continuously invests in the improvement of its hatcheries. The last renovated facility, located in Saint-Hilaire-de-Loulay in the Vendée area, is now one of the most modern facilities in Europe, using state-of-the-art technology with a production capacity of over one million chicks per week.

Orvia is specialized in the production of colored, Label Rouge, organic and certified chicks. The group has recently acquired new hatcheries in the Pays de Loire area. This gives the opportunity to reach 12% market share of standard chicks and 20% of colored chicks in France.

Insect larvaes breeding

Like the hatching of waterfowls, the production stage of Hermetia Illucens larvae consists of collecting eggs from our controlled lines, selected upstream from their optimal zootechnical characteristics.

These eggs are carefully collected into a receptacle and transferred afterwards to the incubators.

At the end of this first stage, the larvae are fed with a blend of crushed fruits and vegetables, which constitutes a 100% vegetable and natural substrate. The larvae will be packed and shipped into a dedicated custom-made matrix once they reach a weight of 5 mg.

Further information available on Cycle Farms’ website

Waterfawls selection

Primary breeding is a specialised activity within the group and comprises selecting the best breeding animals from large populations. These animals will create the next generation. Orvia has been selecting geese and ducks in this way for over 45 years.

All breeding lines are audited by SYSAAF (French poultry and aquaculture primary breeders’ union) to check that they comply with the required standards. The Orvia research program allows for continuous improvements in performance in line with market developments, animal welfare and the expectations of customers and end consumers.

Today, the performance of Orvia’s products enables the group to be the leader in the French market, with a 60% market share in Muscovy duck, 75% in Mule duck and almost 100% in geese. With an international focus, the group represents 40% of the European Peking duck market and 20% of the overall world market.

Insects selection

Since 2018 and following the same way as for waterfowls, Orvia group has relied on the expertise of SYSAAF to improve the performance of its animals.

The group’s historial experience is a key success factor on conducting its innovation and research programs.

Orvia aims promoting products on the market that will improve customers economical returns and the quality of the finished products.

The breeding activity is managed into Cycle Farms’ historic operation in Beaufort en Anjou from where several strains are kept of and improved.

Further information available on Cycle Farms’ website

Technical

Orvia’s technicians are experts in animal production. They guarantee the good management of our livestock.

Their technical know-how and their excellent understanding of the requirements for each of the species we offer enable our products to obtain technical and economic results in line with market expectations and trends.

Orvia’s technical department continuously strives to promote the modernization of farms, both to optimize the performance of the animals, provide the best environment for the animals and to improve working conditions, while satisfying the expectations of customers.

Health

In order to avoid any risk of contamination and to guarantee customer satisfaction, Orvia makes every effort to protect its livestock and production sites. Health and biosecurity are the cornerstone of our business.

In-house training courses provided by the QHSE (Quality, Health, Safety and Environment) department allow us to regularly check and ensure the implementation of good professional practices (changing room at the entrance, downtime between flocks, dead bird disposal, disinfection, safe transportation, signage, etc.).

Internal biosecurity audits are performed using quality tools that facilitate transparency, traceability and statistical analysis of data, in line with the group’s challenges.

We implement our animal welfare policy, in hatcheries and in breeding farms to ensure that the animals can meet their 5 basic needs, which define them as sentient beings:

• Physiological needs: adequate feeding and watering;
• Sensory needs: respect for animal sensitivity;
• Environmental needs: animal comfort;
• Veterinary needs: animal health;
• Social needs: expression of natural behavior.

Orvia is committed to fully respecting the requirements of the SNA charter (French Hatchery Union) and carries out regular checks to ensure that it is continuously and correctly applied on all its sites. The group is considering the design and implementation of a similar charter, specifically related to insects.
At the same time at Orvia, we have set up our own animal welfare procedure, the result of many years of research integrating man and animal in order to improve our breeding practices (better environment, handling optimization, animal care…). Specific training has been developed with the help of our veterinarians and has been implemented in our farms and hatcheries to ensure compliance with good animal welfare practices.