Egg production to remain depressed

Egg production to remain depressed

Financial Gazette 10/1/2019 

Nelson Gahadza Business Reporter 

IRVINE’S Zimbabwe says although the re-stocking of breeder stocks and layers programme is largely com­plete, eggs supply will continue to be depressed in the coming few months. 

Production at Irvines was impacted by an outbreak of Avian bird flu nearly two years ago, resulting in the com­pany culling 835 000chickens, mostly layers and broiler breeders, between June and August 2017. 

As a result, Irvines — through its parent company Innscor Africa (Innscor) — invested in excess of $8 million to­wards the restocking of its chicken rearing and layers units at the company’s Lanark Farm. 

Julian Schonken, Innscor’s chief executive, said the re­covery programme at Irvine’s has been continuing smooth­ly and the full re-stocking of the breeder flocks in both the broiler and layer categories is now largely complete. 

He noted that local production of hatching eggs continues to increase but imports will still be re­quired up to the end of the 2019 third quarter, albeit on a gradually reducing basis, and until local production is fully restored. 

“We continue to work with the relevant authorities in order to ensure cost and pricing efficiencies are achieved,” he said. 

The country is still experiencing the effects of the avian flu outbreak as eggs shortages still exist while prices has more than doubled. According to Innscor, post the restock­ing exercise, Irvine’s will return to its peak production level of over a million chicks per week and 1,5 million dozens table eggs per month. 

Meanwhile, Schonken said the company has also ex­panded the contract grower base and this will allow for a .further increase in frozen chicken production. 

“Table egg production continues to recover, and should be fully restored during the third quarter of 2019,” he said. 

In light of the avian flu outbreak, poultry players ap­proached the government asking for the suspension of the 40 percent import duty on fertilised eggs to bridge the sup­ply gap of day-old chicks. 

Zimbabwe’s egg production tumbled by 12 percent to nine million eggs in the second quarter of 2018 as output by large-scale producers fell, according to a second quarter performance report by the Zimbabwe Poultry Association.

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