adminThe mid-year sector report of the Stockfeed Manufacturers’ Association indicates continued growth in the industry. Based on information supplied by Agrifoods, Capital Feeds, Feedmix, Fivet Animal Health, Hamara Feeds, Hyperfeeds, Ice Feeds, Irvines Zimbabwe, Lake Harvest, Manyame Milling, National Foods Ltd, Novatek Animal Feeds, Profeeds, RimaiTidye Feeds and Triple C Pigs, the report indicates that average monthly feed production between January and June 2014 was 34 578 metric tonnes, representing a 16 percent increase over the same period in 2013.
Growth in the feed sector was largely driven by the poultry producer sector. In the first six months of 2014, poultry feeds accounted for 74 percent of all feeds produced.
Broiler feeds in the first half of 2014 were 20 percent higher than feeds produced over the same period in 2013, driven by the growth in broiler day old chick production, which increased by 17 percent over the same period.
The report also shows significant growth in the production and sales of other feeds in the first half of the year compared to the same period in 2013.
Dairy meals, beef fattening meals, fish feed and pig feed production grew by 57, 30, 10 and 3 percent, respectively. These figures reflect positive growth in the respective livestock sub-sectors.
However, despite these positive growth signs, there are a number of threats facing the industry.
These include:
a) Dumping/smuggling of various meats into the country
According to the chairman of the Stockfeeds Manufacturers’ Association: “Because of our position as a country with the highest cost of grains (maize and soya), which means highest prices of meat and livestock products, individuals have seen opportunities to smuggle in or dump various meats, particularly chicken and pork, to the detriment of local producers of meat.
“The local poultry market is close to collapsing right now and producers, who are the small-scale and communal in the majority, are scaling back or stopping production all together.
“This is our biggest threat because the poultry industry accounts for 74 percent of our stockfeeds and when they sneeze, the stockfeed industry catches a cold.”
b) Maize marketing policies
The chairman also highlighted the issue of the minimum maize price as a threat to the feeds industry.
“For example, the recently gazetted Statutory Instrument 122 of 2014, which was enacted on 8 August 2014, was meant to increase the return to maize farmers.
“But the authorities forgot that maize is a key raw material in stockfeeds, and Zimbabwe is struggling to compete in the region (that is why cheap imports are destroying our livestock industries).
“Our regional competitors pay their farmers about $250 per tonne, compared to our declared price of maize of $390 per tonne, making the prices of their feed costs, and hence meat products prices, much lower.
“This creates incentives for smugglers of cheap meats to flood our markets to the detriment of our livestock producers.”
The stockfeed industry has sufficient capacity and technical expertise to meet the requirements of the livestock industry and is a critical component of the crop and livestock value chains, adding value to the local maize and soya crop in the production of high quality livestock feeds.
Online Reporter