20 Dec 2020

The poultry industry has over  the years been  self-sufficient  in broiler  meat  and table  eggs, Minister  of Agricultural Development  and Food Security, Mr Karabo Gare has  said. 

 Mr  Gare  said 24 750 tonnes of broiler meat  was produced as  at September 2020/21 compared  to 22 593 in 2019/2020 adding that over  6 million  dozen table eggs were produced in 2020/2021 compared  to 5 million during the same period last year. 

 He attributed the increase in production to growth in backyard poultry projects due to government interventions like 35 per cent drought feed subsidy and the ministry’s initiatives to resuscitate small scale poultry producers. 

The initiatives, he said were assisting clusters to access government tenders and exemptions to import poultry feeds, but acknowledged that the country still imported some further processed chicken predominately mechanically deboned meat.

 He said a total 1 867 tonnes of further processed chicken was produced locally while 2 002 tonnes was imported. 

He added that most of the chicken franchiser’s supplies was locally produced.

Minister Gare acknowledged shortage of day old chicks in the country during August this year, adding that the ministry, however, issued a number of import permits to 12 distributors, allowing them to import limited quantities to address the shortfall.

“The results of this intervention took a while to be felt this year since the chicks were not available in neighbouring countries. 

To date, a total of 63 000 chicks were imported and most of these day old chicks came in late November through to early December. The situation of day old chicks has stabilised,” he said.

To further attend to challenges faced by the poultry industry, Mr Gare highlighted that the ministry would construct small scale poultry abattoirs and processing plants, adding that the initiative would also include provisions of mobile abattoirs for use in areas where non-moveable structures had not been considered.

 He said hatcheries would also be given dispensation to import fertile eggs while they expanded their breeder farms.

As a regulatory mechanism, he noted that the ministry was already engaging Competition Authority to address the dominant vertical integration such that the participants in the industry would be facilitated to focus on the areas of their niche to allow vibrant value chain for all.

 He said the ministry would also promote free range chicken to include tswana chickens and diversify the industry by promoting other poultry line like turkey.

Mr Gare dismissed any monopoly in the poultry industry, stating that the 2014 report by the Competition Authority stated that there were oligopoly tendencies, a situation where there were few players dominating the industry. 

He said the ministry had therefore eased import restrictions of feed for small scale poultry producers to allow broader participation at production level in addition to other initiatives such as clustering.

 The minister was responding to a question from Gaborone Central MP Mr Tumisang Healy who requested for an update on the situation with the poultry industry. 

He also wanted to know among others the names of the top 10 companies that supplied day old chick, broiler producers and retailers that sold broilers as well as chicken franchisers and chicken feed suppliers. ends