According to Trade Minister Mmusi Kgafela, the industry has been having some bottlenecks that include policies which early entrants used to make it difficult for new market entrants. The minister said their findings, which were conducted in 2013, also revealed that already existing players were strongly vertically integrated along supply chain value, and at the same time, competing with the small players who are their customers. “In 2013, my ministry through CCA carried out a study into the poultry industry and key findings were that there were two major producers and fertile eggs, two major producers of day-old chicks, various producers of broilers and layers and many retailers in their market,” he said.
The minister said the study made recommendations which saw more producers of feed being able to enter the market which reduced the high cost of feeds, and more producers of day-old chicks entered the market, and this brought down the cost of day-old chicks. “Because of evident business opportunities in the market, this attracted market entrance in the production of day-old chicks and poultry feed manufacturers and issues of Halaal were addressed through policy and this opened opportunities for small producers to enter the retail market,” he said. Currently, there are 260 poultry projects spread across the country, the majority being small-scale broiler projects while the major seven poultry feed manufacturers in Botswana, which are Opti Feeds, Techno Feeds, Nutri Feeds, Tholo Holdings, Zenit Feed Producers, Irviners Botswana, and Magnum.
The minister was responding to a question from Member of Parliament for Palapye Oneetse Ramogapi who wanted the ministry to state the names of companies and directors who have invested in the poultry, broilers, layers, and all types of poultry feed business. He also wanted to find out if there was monopoly, what is being done to rectify that, as well as if the ministry will consider conducting investigations and reporting findings.
