adminZimbabwe remains proudly self-sufficient in meat, with half yearly production figures for 2016 showing that both production and consumption of the most popular meat, chicken, has been affected by shrinking market demand in the liquidity crunch. Compared to the same period last year, production of broiler meat has declined by 5 percent in the first six months of 2016. This drop has occurred in the small-scale sector which produces two out of every three broiler chickens in Zimbabwe.
The second quarterly report of the Zimbabwe Poultry Association shows that in the first half of 2016 an average of 1,8 million birds a month were slaughtered in the formal market, translating into an average monthly 3 050 metric tonnes of broiler meat. This increased to 3 331mt from April to June, but the second quarter of 2016 was also marked by a reduced producer price to the farmer of $1,81/kg live weight, which is below the production cost. High stock holding of broiler meat at commercial abattoirs has seen the producer price for broiler meat fall to its lowest since the rapid smallholder driven, post-hyperinflation growth of the poultry industry that saw Zimbabwe achieve self-sufficiency in meat production again, five years ago.
The second quarter of this year was also marked by worsening liquidity problems, cash shortages and reduced consumer purchasing power. Many poultry producers are cutting back or going out of production, as they find themselves between shrinking market demand and lower prices for their product; and increased cost of stockfeed in the drought – the biggest production cost. Massive destocking of cattle in the drought has also driven the price of beef down, and it is competing with chicken for the consumer dollar.
The broiler breeder industry which supplies day old chicks to farmers for broiler rearing, is also constricting. At least 200 000 less chicks a day were required for the shrinking market in the first six months of 2016, a reduction of 8 percent over the same period last year. Imports of hatching eggs were almost 40 percent lower in an industry which produced 10 percent less hatching eggs for the same period. Day old chick prices have continued to drop in 2016, averaging $61 per 100 chicks in June.
In the layer industry, production has increased by 24 percent on the back of a very soft table egg market.
Smallholder egg production grew by some 32 percent (averaging 2.9 million dozen per month)and large-scale production by 20 percent from January to June 2016, over the same period last year. Recovering from its 2015 drop in production, large-scale, table egg production grew from 1,4 million in April 2015 to 2,1 million dozen eggs per month in June 2016.
The 5 million dozen egg mark in total egg production from both the formal and informal sectors is estimated to have been reached in June this year. But this production high was also marked by plummeting prices in a soft egg market.
At $3,17, the average wholesale price per tray is 25 percent lower than the price fetched in the first half of 2015.
In the layer breeder industry there has been a 50 percent downturn in production of layer day-old chicks for commercial layer production. This has translated into a 40 percent reduction in sales and retentions of layer day-old chicks. The price of layer day-old chicks has remained static over the period March to June, averaging $115 per 100 chicks.
Latest national stockfeed production figures reflect production trends in the poultry industry, which is the largest consumer of stockfeed in Zimbabwe, utilising 71 percent of all stockfeeds. Latest Stockfeed Manufacturers’ Association figures for the second quarter of 2016 show that layer feed production plummeted by 45 percent in the second quarter of the year, mirroring the 50 percent reduction in sexed pullet production.
The 13 percent and 8 percent cut in production of broiler starter and finisher feeds, over the same period in 2015, reflected the 10 percent decrease in broiler chick production.
Altogether an average 43 022mt of stockfeed a month were produced in Zimbabwe during the second quarter of 2016. During the second quarter of this year, some $6,2 million of maize (19 605mt) and $5,7million of soyabean raw materials (11 513mt) went into the production of poultry stockfeed each month.
Stockfeed production in Zimbabwe has grown in tandem with the post hyperinflation recovery of the meat and egg industries. Largely driven by smallholder poultry producers, who took both broiler meat and egg production to record levels in Zimbabwe from 2011-2013, chicken has overtaken beef as the most popular and most affordable meat in the country.
The structure of the poultry industry has changed over the last seven years too, from one dominated by vertically integrated large-scale operations to a predominantly small-scale, women-managed and peri-urban poultry industry; playing an important economic role in urban livelihoods as well as in national food production.
Meat self-sufficiency in Zimbabwe has also been made possible by sufficiency in stockfeed and the support of a vibrant stockfeed industry. When stockfeed ingredients are not available in the country or region in times of drought, the stockfeed industry has made contingency plans to import these, to ensure that it continues to supply livestock farmers with feed to produce meat, milk and eggs; and to keep the wheels of local industry turning.
Online Reporter