21 Aug 2017

Up to 75 per cent of all animal feeds manufactured by Opti Feeds Botswana are made from locally produced maize, Opti Feeds Botswana general manager, Mr Judge Mookodi has revealed.

Speaking in an interview on how the company was doing since its establishment six year ago, Mr Mookodi said the company used 1 300 metric tonnes of Botswana yellow maize in its manufacturing process, adding that the business was doing well.

At Opti Feeds Botswana, he said they believed animal feeds must be manufactured with locally produced maize. However, since Botswana is a relatively dry country, he said a lot of their inputs were imported from countries like Zambia and South Africa.

“A big proportion of the ingredients we use are imported, so we have to contend with competitive pricing from our suppliers,” he said.
He, however, said in the event of a bumper harvest, yellow maize was often in abundance. “So in this particular case, we buy a lot of that from local farmers in order to support them and also to build them up,” he added.

Established in June 2011, Opti Feeds Botswana general manager said the company still continued to meet the demands of livestock farmers, producing feeds for various livestock such as cattle, sheep, goats and chicken. He added that they focus mainly on chicken feed production.

The company is located in Gaborone along the Haile Selassie road in the old industrial site, and boasts of a staff complement of 58 employees.
After seeing an opportunity of a lucrative market in animal feed production, Mr Mookodi said they decided to venture into the business “because a lot of animal feed in Botswana is imported, and we worked very hard to assist and encourage local farmers to produce.

“We are proud to report that we are pleased and encouraged by the achievement of this milestone. We thank you all farmers for your maize production and are grateful for your valued contribution to the value adding process of Opti Feeds Botswana,” said Mr Mookodi.

He said their dream was to reach a point where all their products were made throughout the year utilising locally produced grains. This, he said, would help the company to substitute its imports and still produce quality products to meet farmers demand.

With increased contribution from local farmers, Opti Feeds Botswana general manager acknowledged that in the future the company would be able to realise its objective of increasing local maize content.manufacturing process.

However, to try and meet local market needs he said Opti Feeds Botswana was competing with other companies. He thanked government for supporting their business and local production, adding that there was high demand for their products locally, ‘as we provide chicken feed for local small, medium and big commercial farmers throughout the country, not only in Gaborone.’

Government, he said had also put certain instruments in place that encouraged local production and minimised effects of imports, simply to support local production to meet local needs.

Currently, he said the company was supplying local market and not yet exporting, as it had a good market to serve in Botswana. Mr Mookodi said the company was also prepared to support farmers who could provide the company with ingredients, such as; soya and sunflower oil cake for its manufacturing processes.

In terms of future plans, Opti Feeds Botswana general manager said the company had secured a plot for expansion next to its current location and plans were in place to begin construction of a new advanced and sophisticated animal feeds plant from April 2018.
“This plant will have a capacity of 12 000 metric tones per month. So, we basically finalising plans and also plans for funding of the project,” he said.
“Additionally, in the fullness of time, we are prepared to look into exports. However, the big challenge with us is that we are mainly competing with South African farmers who have the benefits of economies of scale,” he added.

Once local farmers’ input reaches a particular position, where Opti Feeds Botswana could be able to match pricing on a regional basis, he said the company would be able to export.
Given that the country previously experienced shortage of rainfall, Mr Mookodi said during that time the company relied on exports to meet quality requirements of the market and farming trade.

“So, whether we are able to get certain ingredients locally or not, it is incumbent on us, from a manufacturing point of view, to seek those ingredients elsewhere in the world. So, that shortage of rainfall hasn’t affected our capacity,” he added.

He also underscored that the current campaign to buy lot of local maize had always been in place, “but the last time when we bought a substantial amount of local maize was in 2014 after the last major bumper harvest.” Ends