By JUDITH NAMUTOWE
 –

THE Poultry Association of Zambia (PAZ) has projected that the sector
will grow more than 80 million birds in the next few years due to the
rising demand of the day-old chicks.
PAZ executive manager Dominic Chanda said the sector was expected to
grow over 80 million birds due to a number of new entrants into the
sector.
The sector has recorded tremendous growth over the last 10 years and
the association has seen a number of investments that have come into
the industry.
“In the past 10 years, we have seen huge investment coming into the
country and if you look at statistics, last year alone, the sector
produced close to about 68 million day-old chicks and about 150
million eggs.
“This means that the broilers sector grew by almost 21 per cent, with
the egg sub sector growing to a tune of about 16 to 18 per cent,” Mr
Chanda said.
Mr Chanda attributed the growth of the sector to good policy
environment the Government has put in place.
He said that the sector was growing because of the demand that was
arising from the growth of the middle income status, adding that the
prices of poultry products were cheaper hence making it affordable for
the vulnerable families.
Mr Chanda said that the poultry sector had also driven the growth of
allied industries like soya beans sector in past 10 years.
“We used to import soya beans, but now we are able to produce above
what we can consume.
So we have seen the growth of soya beans sector also coming on board.
Besides that, we have also seen a number of millers producing stock
feed increasing in terms of numbers and in size,” he said.
He said, if the sector was to thrive and meet the expectations and
contribute effectively to the country’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP),
there was need to ensure that the cost of production was maintained or
reduced.
Mr Chanda said the rising cost of production was one of the major
challenges the sector was facing.