16 Oct 2018

Minister of Agricultural Development and Food Security, Mr Patrick Ralotsia has commended Nutri Feeds for playing a pivotal role in the production of poultry and animals feeds.

Speaking during a tour of the company facilities in Pilane on October 15, Mr Ralotsia said the private sector remained a critical player in the economy, as they created more opportunities for growth and development while creating employment for the youth.

Minister Ralotsia further said government supported the private sector by generating laws and policies that helped in the facilitation of the private sector.

He said it was important that Botswana University of Agriculture and Natural Resources partnered with Nutri Feeds to enhance their curriculum so that they could produce well-rounded graduates.

He said he was impressed by the extensive experience that Nutri Feeds had, adding that it would be valuable for Batswana.

Mr Ralotsia further commended Nutri Feeds for not only focusing on profit making, but also helping develop young professionals.

He encouraged the company to consider the export market considering the population that Botswana has.

Giving an overview of Nutri Feeds general manager, Mr Pieter Visagie said they were focusing on broiler production and feed manufacturing.

He said they strived to deliver as they continued to invest in technology and strong relationships with customers.

Mr Visagie noted that they were the biggest suppliers of poultry feeds, and that they have a strong local shareholding.

He added that they manufactured monogastric feeds for both poultry and pigs.

The general manager further said they have a capacity of 6 000 tonnes and that they would like to increase production capacity to 10 000 tonnes.

He said they would use about P13 million in upgrading the plant and that it would create more jobs for locals.

He said the company had employed 152 people and that they chose labour over automisation as a way of creating employment.

He also said their company had skills development training and graduate development programme.

He added that they had five student attachés, three interns on maintenance, one MBA research student, three permanent intern positions and four graduates employed in key positions.

Mr Visagie also said they were the biggest buyers of yellow maize, and that they supported small poultry farmers as they had partnered with Kgatleng Poultry Association.

In his welcome remarks, the managing director, Mr Allan Bradford said NUTRI Feeds and Ross Breeders were part of Master Farmers. He said they want to contribution to the economy.

and that the company had been in Botswana for long and had a good working environment. ENDS