The Sunday News
PIG production is one livestock production sector which has been slowly and surely on the decline and is in serious need of resuscitation.
Commercial pig production declined during the hyperinflation era with the lowest commercial sow head recorded at 8 000 in 2008 down from 20 000 in 2007.
Since then the sector has tried to increase its herd recording 13 500 commercial sows in 2012 but a myriad of challenges has curtailed its potential and hence suffocating smallholder production in the process.
It is important to note that just like in cattle production smallholder producers hold the highest number of sow units put together and hence if the sector is properly developed in terms of breeds and other important production parameters it can have a telling effect in the pig production value chain as a whole.
Just for the benefit of non-agriculture trained persons a pig production unit is measured in terms of the number of the breeding sows in the herd. Sows are the female pigs. So a five-sow unit does not necessarily mean the farmer has five pigs , they could be way more than that but his/her breeding sows will be five.
One of the major contributing factors to the decline of pig production especially in Matabeleland region is the shutdown of major pork processing companies.
Needless to say those that have been in pig production know the companies which I am talking about.
One of them used to measure up to Cold Storage Company pound for pound at its peak.
It provided a ready and reliable market for pig producers so when it folded it had a domino effect on the various aspects of the pig production value chain.
Pig producers began to face challenges of where to sell their pork and as a result others scaled down production.
The scaling down of pig production began to hit hard on pig abattoirs who responded by either closing down or converting to cattle abattoirs.
This meant that the few pig producers who remained faced challenges on where to slaughter their pigs.
It is therefore imperative that any well-meaning and serious pig production intervention or promotion should look at the re-establishment of a giant pork processing company in the mould of the one that packed its bags.
It is a long established truth that demand stimulates production and all the value players in the pig industry need to integrate their effort towards resuscitating the demand side of pork and production will just follow suit.
This pen appreciates the establishment of a pig abattoir at Figtree and it is not in dispute at all that the abattoir will bring about growth in this critical agricultural sector.
Religion has not spared this sector either as some known giant abattoirs in Bulawayo converted into Halaal certified units in compliance with religious demands of a section of our community. These facilities can no longer slaughter pigs or handle any pork products because of that certification.
On the consumption side some church denominations are prohibited by scriptures to consume pork products.
Believe it or not these amount to a huge market lost.
This article therefore is a call for all the private players and businesspeople with an interest in pig production to consider investing in the pork processing industry such as more abattoirs. On the other hand farmers’ unions and more specifically pig production associations should keep lobbying and promoting the pig production industry so that it can reach its previous heights. This is a sector which affects livelihoods of many families and hence it cannot be allowed to just die like that.
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