Business Reporter

RABBIT farmers in Bulawayo and Manicaland recently received New Zealand White and Chinchilla Giganta pure breeds from Raymeg Holdings, a corporate member of the Zimbabwe Commercial Rabbit Breeders Association (ZICORBA), as part of efforts to upgrade the gene pool and ramp up cuniculture production in the country.

This comes after ZICORBA secured a niche for rabbit meat on the local market, where demand is anticipated to soar to over 25 tonnes per month with net revenue of about US$1 million.

Efforts by Raymeg to improve the rabbit gene pool and increase commercial production of rabbits in the country comes in the face of a sharp increase in the number of farmers venturing into rabbit breeding.

To date, ZICORBA members in Masvingo, Mashonaland East and Midlands have received the pure breeds.  The pure breeds were imported from South Africa recently under a government approved and supervised programme.

Raymeg Executive Director, Paidamoyo Nyamakanga said the distribution of the pure breeds would continue in Mashonaland East, Harare and Mashonaland West provinces in September 2021.

“The programme is aimed at broadening the participation of rabbit farming amongst our people, to improve livelihoods, create employment and to contribute to the country’s gross domestic product,” she said.

Commercial rabbit production, which is fast gaining ground in Zimbabwe, has significant potential to generate foreign currency earnings for the country. Export markets include China and the Democratic Republic of Korea.

ZICORBA, which is the only collective voice of rabbit farmers in Zimbabwe, is engaging schools, hospitals, hotels, restaurants and eateries in its nationwide campaign to popularise consumption of rabbit meat, because of its immense health benefits.

Masvingo Provincial Affairs and Devolution Minister Ezra Chadzamira recently expressed enthusiasm for ZICORBA projects in his areas and urged women in the province to venture into cuniculture production.

“I am very impressed by what I have seen here at your rabbitry and wish to invite you to work with me in encouraging women in Masvingo to venture into rabbit production.  We want the women to tap into your vast experience in rabbit production,” Minister Chadzamira said.

The Minister said this after he visited the ZICORBA Masvingo Chapter president Lydia Chimbari, following her recent election. The minister commended Ms Chimbari’s rabbit rearing projects and made a commitment to start his own rabbit project.

“I feel honoured to be invited by the minister to work with him in his initiative to promote rabbit production in Masvingo. We hope he will help us promote rabbit consumption in Masvingo town,” Ms Chimbari said.

The Minister has been spearheading the revival of the agricultural sector in the province, leading by example at his 120-hectare Cresta Ibeka Farm where he has a thriving winter wheat crop.

ZICORBA has, in its first year of existence, been at the forefront of recruiting local businessmen to invest in what was previously a neglected sub-sector.

This has turned rabbit farming into one of the most coveted and burgeoning enterprises in Zimbabwe. At the behest of ZICORBA, private investor Raymeg Holdings invested in Zimbabwe’s first export certified rabbit abattoir, which is one of the biggest in Africa.