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Brighton Gumbo Business Reporter
POULTRY farmers say they have sufficient chickens to meet demand for poultry products during the festive season in the country. Zimbabwe Poultry Farmers’ Association chairman, George Nare, told Business Chronicle the sector was flooded with players who have made major investments in procuring equipment to increase output.

He said a number of players had become producers of chicken feed, which was a cost cutting measure since stock feed prices had been cited as major hurdle in chicken farming. “We’re very confident that we’ll meet national demand for chicken come festive season. We don’t anticipate any imports because we’ve enough to feed the nation,” said Nare.

As the Christmas and New Year holidays draw near, farmers believe this is the opportunity to make more profits riding on anticipated increase in demand. “To everyone in the sector the festive season means brisk business that’ll recoup our expenses since we’ve been recording very low proceeds during the course of the year,” said Nare.

He said while the sector has been operating under a harsh economic environment, the festive season was expected to bolster their operations. Nare said cash shortages and cheap imports from South Africa and Brazil were threatening the viability of the local industry.

Zimbabwe has a combined hatching capacity of 76 million day-old chicks per annum but over the years, cheap imported chickens have flooded the local market, edging out local producers. Poultry breeding and production in Zimbabwe is commercially based and includes thousands of indigenous producers in communal areas and in backyards in urban areas.

The government in 2012 imposed import duty of $1,50 per kilogramme on imported chicken but this has done little to curb imports. Zimbabwe imports most of its chicken from South Africa and Brazil.