The Sunday News
Mesabe Ncube Business Reporter
CONSUMERS are increasingly becoming dependent on smuggled poultry products which are flooding the local market as some merchants are taking advantage of the gap created by customers who are resisting local products citing uncompetitive pricing.In an interview, Matabeleland Agricultural Business Chamber programmes manager, Mr Gerald Bhebe, said in spite of an increase in local poultry producers, prices of the products were higher compared to imports breeding a ground for businesspeople to smuggle cheap products.
Some of the cheap products have even found their way into established retail shops raising questions on how they were coming into the country in spite of a ban by the Government.
“There is a large number of broiler producers, from large-scale to small-scale and even backyard production. However, most of the products are not competitive enough in terms of price and presentation although they are usually superior in terms of the nutritive value and taste,” he said.
A check on some supermarkets showed that a packed two-kilogramme of smuggled chicken costs around $6 way below the price of a dressed chicken which in most cases weighs lower than two kilogrammes.
Hence, he said, MABC, working with two non-governmental organisations – GeM Agriculture Development and Sustainable Economic Development Initiative (SEDI) – would train farmers on Thursday and Friday next week in Bulawayo on how they could deal with un-competitiveness to counter cheap imports.
He said farmers were arguing that pricing was being affected by costs of feed, labour and veterinary supplies but noted that there was a need for innovativeness to deal with the issues.
“In the poultry industry, bigger is not always better,” he said. “A chicken will always have the same number of pieces whether big or small, but the bigger the more expensive and this does not suit the major formal markets.”
He said his organisation had now split the training programme into three sessions per year to ensure effectiveness.
The sessions are for farmers in the layer and egg held in February, indigenous chickens held in June and broiler sessions this month.
