August 23, 2007

South Africa opens economic empowerment poultry project

South Africa has opened a R20-million (EUR 2 million) poultry farm to help low income workers.

The Loerie Hoogte poultry farm, a black economic empowerment project, is a joint venture between Rocklands Poultry (a subsidiary of Sovereign Food Investments) and Kamnandi Trading in Loerie.

The operation consists of six modern chicken houses with an area of 1800 square metres each. Each chicken house would be capable of producing about 54,000 chickens a month when operating at full capacity.

Rocklands Poultry contributed R6-million (EUR 600,000) for the project while the department of agriculture funded R5-million (EUR500,000). The rest of the R9-million (EUR 900,000) came from bank loans.