How to Feather a Nest

The No. 1 poultry farm in the Middle East is Greenleaf Farm & Hatchery in Lebanon's flat, fertile valley of Bekaa, where Caesar's colonials once raised wheat. Hatched three years ago by husky Harvard ('48) Lawyer Robert Marshall Stevenson, 37. Greenleaf Farm delivers some 10,000 eggs and 1.500 chickens a day to Beirut alone, is a prime example of how well U.S. farming methods work in underdeveloped countries.

Last week Greenleaf signed a new contract to provide Beirut's airport restaurant with 750,000 fresh eggs a year. A British contractor asked Greenleaf to set up a vast poultry farm in Libya (on a percentage basis). A businessman in Saudi Arabia, anxious to furnish Mecca with fresh eggs, offered Greenleaf a similar contract. At a subsidiary farm near Shiraz, Iran, Greenleaf stepped up production to supply Iran's egg market. This week Greenleaf also made its first shipment of eggs to Aramco in Saudi Arabia, which now imports them from Australia. Predicted Stevenson: in 1960 Greenleaf will triple its 1959 sales of $505,000 as well as profits of $60,000.

Show-Place Farm. The idea of a poultry farm in Lebanon first came to Stevenson five years ago when he was an Esso Standard assistant regional manager. To learn Arabic he hired Khalil Ghattas, an agriculture student at the American University of Beirut, who spent the lesson time talking about farming. Stevenson was so impressed with the boy's knowledge that they became partners. Stevenson risked $600 to set up a small chicken business on the Bekaa Valley farm of Khalil's father. Ghattas turned the farm into such a show place that U.S. Point Four officials sent him to Purdue University to study animal husbandry. When he returned, he and Stevenson launched Greenleaf, began importing two breeds of U.S. chickens, one for egg-laying, the other for meat.

Scraping up $15,000, they rented an abandoned British army warehouse, began selling eggs and chickens on a big scale. For added income, they got exclusive dealerships for feed and livestock equipment. Though they lost $1,900 in their first year, they were in the black, with gross sales of $140,000 in 1957, and Stevenson quit Esso.

Rich Man's Dish. Greenleaf's first big customer was the U.S. Air Force base in Dhahran. Weary of unreliable local merchants, erratic deliveries and low-quality products, the base's procurement officers at first agreed only to a trial contract. The shipments were so prompt--and the eggs so fresh--that the farm got a year's contract for 12,000 dozen monthly.

After that, Greenleaf increased its population to 12,000 laying hens and 10,000 breeders, ordered a new hatchery put up near the old warehouse, built a cleaning, grading and packing plant outside Beirut. Greenleaf also sparked an upturn in sales of chickens, once deemed strictly a rich man's dish, and Beirut housewives now buy 40,000 a week. Another result: 32 chicken rotisserie stores have opened in Beirut since 1958, and 64 more await licenses. Greenleaf also sells chicks to local farmers who want to learn how to raise quality egg-layers or well-fattened roosters. To offset future losses from such potential competitors, Greenleaf is selling them feed.

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