Poultry sector to produce over 80 million birds #zambia

THE Poultry Association of Zambia (PAZ) has projected that
the sector will grow more than 80 million birds in the next
few years due to the rising demand of the day-old chicks.
PAZ executive manager Dominic Chanda said the sector
was expected to grow over 80 million birds due to a number
of new entrants into the sector.
The sector has recorded tremendous growth over the last
10 years and the association has seen a number of
investments that have come into the industry.
"In the past 10 years, we have seen huge investment
coming into the country and if you look at statistics, last
year alone, the sector produced close to about 68 million
day-old chicks and about 150 million eggs.
"This means that the broilers sector grew by almost 21 per
cent, with the egg sub sector growing to a tune of about 16
to 18 per cent," Mr Chanda said.
Mr Chanda attributed the growth of the sector to good policy
environment the Government has put in place. He said that
the sector was growing because of the demand that was
arising from the growth of the middle income status, adding
that the prices of poultry products were cheaper hence
making it affordable for the vulnerable families.
Mr Chanda said that the poultry sector had also driven the
growth of allied industries like soya beans sector in past 10
years.
"We used to import soya beans, but now we are able to
produce above what we can consume. So we have seen the
growth of soya beans sector also coming on board. Besides
that, we have also seen a number of millers producing stock
feed increasing in terms of numbers and in size," he said.
He said, if the sector was to thrive and meet the
expectations and contribute effectively to the country's
Gross Domestic Product (GDP), there was need to ensure
that the cost of production was maintained or reduced. Mr
Chanda said the rising cost of production was one of the
major challenges the sector was facing.