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Charity Ruzvidzo Business Reporter
The price of poultry stock feed has significantly gone down as a result of the bumper harvest recorded in the just ended agricultural season.Zimbabwe Poultry Association president Solomon Zawe yesterday told the Business Chronicle that due to the improved harvest, the country no longer had to import grains from neighbouring countries.

Zawe said grain prices that were ranging from $390 to $440 a tonne had come down to $300 a tonne.

“The good harvests we had this year have led to the reduction of stock feed prices, “he said.

In recent months, poultry farmers were forced to import stock feed from Zambia at a higher cost.

According to the World Bank Zimbabwe Economic Briefing for the month of April, following a depressed 2012-2013 season, agriculture was projected to rebound by 7.3 percent this year buoyed by recovery in maize to 1.2 million tons. “The first crop assessment estimates that 1.4 million hectares were planted to maize (18 percent increase from the previous season,” the World Bank said.

The local procurement of maize has reduced the costs for farmers as they no longer have transport costs.

“Farmers had to import stock feed from nations like Zambia. This was very expensive given the transport costs involved,” Zawe said

He said the increased stock feed prices had led to low demand for day old chicks and slowed down the market.

“The demand for day old chicks had decreased; it was expensive to feed them which meant they had to be sold at a higher price.
“The market was low and the demand for white meat was now quite depressed and most producers had stopped supplying chickens because of the slow market,” Zawe said.

Hopes for more production and farmers stocking up again are now high.