June 15, 2010

South Africa's Astral Foods opens new breeding farm

South African poultry producer Astral Foods had opened TIGERChicks, its new high-tech broiler breeding farm and hatchery in the southern African country.

"We have been involved in Zambia for more than 10 years and have experienced growth in our business over this period," Chris Schutte, Chief Executive Officer said.

He added that TIGERChicks demonstrated that the company's business plan for Africa began with entering a market with feed premixes, followed by feed production and then identifying the most viable option to enter the broiler market.

Roedolf Steenkamp, Managing Director of Astral's Feed Division, said Zambia was self-sustainable in terms of agricultural commodities. He added that it was also regarded as being a strategic country to further invest in as a springboard into the rest of Southern Africa.

With the establishment of the new broiler breeding farm and hatchery, Steenkamp believed that Astral could continue to provide job opportunities, deliver a quality day-old chicken to the local broiler farmers, while also offering them training and support in terms of nutrition and broiler farming best practices.

"Poultry remains the most affordable and sustainable form of animal protein and hence the importance of supporting small-scale local poultry farmers," Steenkamp said.

Currently, broiler consumption in Zambia was approximately 2.5 kilogrammes per annum versus 31.8 kilogrammes in South Africa.

TIGERChicks consisted of a 790-hectare property. The benefit of this property, from a bio-security point of view, is that it was completely undeveloped and it is also strategically positioned to service the region. It was also introducting a slow feathering bird for the first time to Africa. Mr Steenkamp said that at present, the hatchery could hatch 120 000 day-old chicks per week.