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Michael Tome, Business Reporter

LEADING poultry and eggs producer, Irvine’s, has opened a one-stop farm-fresh shop designed to cater for the growing demand for poultry products in the country.

The farm-fresh walk-in shop, located at the Derbyshire Farm in Waterfalls along the new Chitungwiza road, will cater for a cross section of customers; wholesalers to individuals who want to buy for household consumption.

Before the opening of the one-stop-shop, Irvine’s ran a kiosk at the Chitungwiza Road farm, but a surge in demand for the company’s products saw the kiosk being overwhelmed by swelling demand for poultry products.

“This is a one-stop farm fresh shop where customers have access to an assortment of Irvine’s products to choose from. Whether one wants fresh eggs, day-old chicks, fresh eggs, sausages, or chickens for consumption, everything is being provided under one roof,” commercial director Anele Zunga said at the launch event Wednesday.

Irvine’s is the biggest poultry and poultry products producer, distributor, and marketer in Zimbabwe and sub-Saharan Africa at large. Among its products are day-old chicks, eggs, broilers, layers, whole birds, and other chicken products.

The one-stop-shop is segmented into retail and wholesale departments to provide for the diverse customers’ needs.

“We made the shop big to avoid people queuing and crowding at the shop in line with Covid-19 requirements,” said Mr Zunga.

Chicken meat remains a more affordable source of protein compared to other meats in Zimbabwe.

The launch of the farm-fresh shop comes on the backdrop of Covid-19 induced lockdowns, which affected volumes uptake across most of the productive sectors of the economy.

However, volumes across a number of sectors have begun to grow stemming from relaxed lockdown regulations, which were announced by President Emmerson Mnangagwa last month.

Irvine’s have been producing chickens in Southern Africa since the 1950s and the company has grown to produce over 1,5-million-day-old chicks per week across Zimbabwe, Mozambique, and Botswana.

As a regional processor, marketer, and distributor of poultry and poultry products, Irvine’s Zimbabwe says it perpetually endeavors to ensure that poultry and poultry products intended for human consumption are produced in a manner that eliminates food hazards that may infringe on the health of consumers.