Sh32b Poultry Project in the Offing
TANZANIA - A multi-billion-shilling poultry project is set to take off in Siha District, Kilimanjaro Region.
8 January 2018
3 minute read
By: Irvines Tanzania Limited intends to produce 250,000 broiler chicks per week when production commences soon, according to managing director Pietro Stella.
“We will breed the best quality chicks for the day using the latest technology,” he told journalists at the site recently.
Tanzania's The Citizen reports that US-based Tyson Foods is a partner in the Sh32 billion venture, the fourth largest investment in broiler breeding in Africa by the American food giant.
The company is the world’s leading processor and marketer of chicken and beef, among other foodstuffs, for the export market.
Dr Stella added that when in full production, the facility would satisfy domestic demand for chicken as well as for the export market.
Production is set to double to 500,000 chicks a week or two million a month during the second phase of the project implementation.
Installation of structures for the breeding units at the company’s 500-acre Kiliwest farm are in the final stages.
Dr Stella said the company would go for Cobb 500 broiler breed chicks from the United States which, according to him, were resistant to drought and disease.
The Siha breeding centre for chicks, which will employ about 100 workers, will be complemented by a hatchery to be established at Kerege, near Bagamoyo, in July this year.
The hatchery has been established in Bagamoyo because of its proximity to Dar es Salaam, the largest market for poultry products in the country.
The MD said poultry was now a profitable business after the government recently waived value-added tax (VAT) on chicken feed.
When fully implemented, Tanzania will become the fourth country in Africa to mass produce Cobb 500 breed of chicken after Zimbabwe, Botswana and Mozambique.
Mr Hussein Gonga, one of the partners in the project, said the scheme had high potential and was in line with the government’s industrialisation drive.
He lauded the government for creating a conducive environment which had attracted investors to the agricultural sector, which, he added, would accelerate industrialisation.
Traditional poultry breeding accounts for 70 per cent of chicken production in Tanzania.
Tanzania recently banned the importation of chicks and chicken to avoid bird flu and to protect local industries and poultry farmers.
The government has called for increased local production of poultry.
