Call to revamp anti-competitive poultry industry
Isaac Pinielo | Wednesday September 21, 2016 16:53
The study, carried out under the Private Sector Development Programme (PSDP), says although the poultry industry in Botswana is self-sufficient in local production, it is anti-competitive.
It says the introduction of an import substitution policy in the poultry sector has led to the demise in its competitiveness.
“The control of goods act of 1979 was introduced to restrict the importation of eggs and poultry meat and thus promote local production,” the study says.
The study explains that government’s intention at that time was to promote the participation of small-scale producers in the poultry sector in order to alleviate rural poverty.
However, it says what started as a good deed eventually became detrimental to the beneficiaries in that they could not compete due to low economies of scale and failure to finding niche markets that provides them with sufficient returns to justify their continuation in the sector.
Of the total 46,080 tonnes produced locally, the study reveals that 10% is by small-scale producers whose production patterns are erratic and inconsistent.
The study further found out that Botswana has about 90,000 traditional or family holdings with some 1.1 million chickens of genetically unimproved stock.
“These are mostly fed on harvest waste and 10 large commercial farms using maize as the main component to feed exotic breeds in poultry houses, and producing most of the country’s annual consumption of 42,000 tonnes carcass weight,” the study says.
It notes that they are partly supplied by small-scale operators who also sell directly to the broiler meat market and that two large breeding farms yearly produce 30 million fertilised eggs and two large-scale hatcheries produce 28 million day-old chicks.
It says poultry producers are mainly situated in, or close to, urban areas, adding that there are 28 licensed abattoirs, 21 of which slaughter 28 million birds per annum and sell meat with little added value directly to retailers.
According to the study, specialty cuts (chicken wings) represent imports of 4,000 tonnes per annum.
Because of the shortage of local maize available for animal feed, the study says, the industry is constrained by the restriction requiring 70% of feed inputs to be sourced locally. The feed-per-broiler ratio in Botswana is 25% less than the international norm, resulting in lower weight gains. It identifies that poultry consumption is very low at 3.6 kg per capita per year, compared to South Africa with 25.1kg. Also demand for chicken is said to be almost entirely met by local production, largely due to import bans. To develop the sector, the report recommends that the price of poultry meat and processed poultry products in Botswana should be reduced, thereby increasing consumption of meat and processed products.
It also calls for the development of smallholder poultry production and marketing, as well as encouraging increased further processing of chicken beyond simple cuts.
“It is clear that there is potential for Botswana to increase the consumption of chicken meat and further processed chicken as an important nutrition or protein source to improve the standard of living,” the report says.
The report on the Botswana poultry sector is a government initiative through the PSDP, which is a component of the wider value chain analysis in emerging sectors, supported by the European Union (EU) and the now defunct Centre for the Development of Enterprise (CDE).