18th November 2022
Own Correspondent
Irvine’s Botswana, a regional poultry producer with offices in Mamashia, has invested over P150 million, employing 180 Batswana, as well as contributing indirectly to uplifting the livelihoods of many Batswana in the broiler poultry industry officials learnt Friday.
Irvine’s Botswana currently produces eighteen million broiler day old chicks and forty-eight thousand tons of feed per annum. Of this huge production, 60% of the chicks and feed is supplied to the small-scale farmers across the country and the balance goes into the commercial sector. Irvine’s poultry production contributes to almost 50% of all chicken meat consumed in Botswana.
“Irvine’s currently supplies over 5000 growers, to mostly women and youth businesses, thereby positively contributing to their upliftment. It is, therefore, gratifying to witness the resurrection of the many small poultry businesses which were facing collapse in the early 2000s,” said Mokgweetsi Masisi, President of Botswana in official opening remarks.
He said, “I would like to applaud Irvine’s Botswana as their initiatives are aligned to the priorities of Government. In the milling plant, Irvine’s has ensured that the raw material is sourced locally, and the company has so far managed to secure a significant portion of their maize requirements from local farmers, thus supporting the agricultural community.”
According to officials this does not only have direct benefits to local farmers who are producing maize cobs for the company, but also a market access that Irvine’s has created for them. This is the platform where the chicken talk is punctuated with familiar stories from the breeding stock of Cobb broilers to the efficient H&N layers occupying the largest share of eggs at our breakfast tables.
“With Irvine’s potential to double the present feed production, I, therefore, call upon local maize farmers as well as other investors to participate in the value chain system. Government stands ready to join hands with you in improving the livelihoods of Batswana,” said Masisi.
He said, “I am happy to note that Irvine’s Botswana does not only focus on the production of chicks and poultry feed, but that they are also involved in imparting skills to Batswana as they have a training centre where they offer free weekly training seminars for all chicken growers, to enable them to run successful poultry businesses.”
Through this facility, Irvine’s has trained over 2,000 small scale growers and continues to offer the opportunity to new entrants in the industry. This is a good initiative as it is offered to growers of all ages, thus providing an opportunity for the youth to venture into the poultry business.
Government remains committed to ensuring economic diversification, employment creation and food security, and will do everything in its power to ensure that it supports the private sector through the creation of an enabling environment for business to thrive.
In the Reset Agenda adopted by Government, the development of Value Chains in the agriculture sector is one of the top priorities. This will ensure food security while also strengthening knowledge capabilities around the sector through dedicated research by our research institutions.
Increased food demand and ever-changing consumption habits driven by among others, the demographic factors such as population growth, are contributing to the country’s rising food import bill, which currently stands at around One Billion Pula per month.
This rise in demand presents opportunities to exploit value chains both in the production and manufacturing side to accelerate economic growth and diversification.
It is within this transformational approach that Batswana are being encouraged to enhance their knowledge capacities and address unemployment, especially among the youth and women.
Research allegedly shows that Botswana has, to a greater extent, achieved self-sufficiency in poultry products. Hence, it is imperative that Batswana focus their efforts on strengthening the value chains in the sub sector in order to propel Botswana to become a net exporter of poultry products.
Such areas of focus include production of day old chicks, feeds, poultry-related veterinarian products and diversified processed poultry products at competitive prices.
“Operations initially consisted of a hatchery producing Cobb day old chicks for the Botswana market. Since then we have invested over P150 million into Irvine’s Botswana with hatchery expansions, a modern state of the art breeder farms and now the latest investment being the feed mill. All our investments are done to the highest international standards to ensure good levels of bio-security and the lastest international standards in manufacturing practices which enables us to provide all our customers with the quality products they expect from us,” said Craig Irvine’s, Irvine’s Group Chief Executive Officer.
He said, “Irvine’s Botswana produces 18 million day old chicks and 48,000 tons of feed per year of which more than 60% goes into the small scale farming sector across Botswana, with the balance going into the commercial sector.”
The small-scale poultry sector outside of South Africa produces more than 80% of the chicken consumed in Sub Saharan Africa. Irvine’s is proud to supply over 60,000 farmers across Botswana, Zimbabwe, Mozambique and Tanzania with locally produced chicks and feed in each of these countries.
In its efforts to be a pioneering service provider and to give back to local communities Irvin has also established a training centre which runs free weekly training seminars for all its customers to help them start and grow successful chicken businesses.
It also provides budding poultry farmers with day old chicks, feed, vaccines, equipment and other inputs they require. Irvine works with its two chick distributors Agrifeed and Big Group Holdings to provide this one stop concept across the whole of Botswana.
