Aviagen East Africa Ltd is a joint venture company between Aviagen, African Poultry Development Limited (APDL) and Country Bird Holdings Limited (CBH). Aviagen East Africa consists of new grandparent (GP) farms and a parent stock (PS) hatchery.

The Aviagen executive team were joined by key customers and government officials for the event. The event was opened by District Administration Secretary Joseph Mabiti; the chairman of the board of directors for Aviagen East Africa, Kester Lyaruu, gave a welcome speech to all attendees. Other speakers included Aviagen chief executive officer Jan Henriksen, District Commissioner Hon. Tom Apson and Tanzanian Minister of Livestock and Fisheries Hon. Mashimba Mashauri Ndaki.

During the event, attendees were given a tour of the facilities which was led by Tommy Taylor, senior operations advisor (Turkey, Middle East and Africa, or TMEA), who is supporting the project to ensure the operation will produce high quality broiler breeder chicks.

Aviagen currently supplies all major poultry producers in the East African region with PS from its UK and European supply bases. This December, Aviagen East Africa will be fully operational and customers in the region will begin receiving Ross 308 PS from its new regional supply base.

"Aviagen's vision is to provide communities with the most affordable, sustainable and high quality source of protein," said president (TMEA) Tom Exley. "The continent of Africa is continuously growing each year, and through our new regional production base, we are able to provide local employment opportunities for people who understand the local requirements and also speak the local language, but more importantly, we can continue to feed the world.

"I would like to thank everyone who has assisted in making this project a success, especially the local communities and the (Tanzanian) government, who have supported us from the beginning, and to the people who are still working on the project. I look forward to witnessing the future development of the East African poultry industry."

Stewart Bradnick, director of Silverlands Tanzania Ltd and a Ross PS customer, said: "We are delighted that Aviagen has built a grandparent operation in Tanzania. This will be the catalyst that kick starts the poultry sector in Tanzania, helping locals to understand that poultry is more than just a backyard operation, it is a mainline agricultural business with huge potential.

"The site of Aviagen East Africa is well positioned away from other poultry and the design of the facilities are very good and adopt high biosecurity standards. This is essential to build confidence in the industry and to be able to supply disease-free chicks to poultry producers.

"We are extremely excited to deliver the first PS chicks to the region from Aviagen East Africa," said business manager (Sub-Saharan Africa, or SSA) Robert Roszkopf.

"With this new investment, we are closer to our customers, which is crucial for us. We can provide a more frequent local service and can supply high quality Ross 308 PS day-old chicks to our customers from our leading edge facilities."