Zimbabwe Poultry Association chairperson, Solomon Zawe, revealed in an industry update that sales and retentions of day-old chicks in 2016 was 74.8 million, being one per cent and 5 per cent lower than 2015 and 2014, respectively.

He revealed that chick prices continued to decline from a peak of 74 cents per chick in June 2015 to 61 cents in June 2016 and recovered slightly to 63 cents in December 2016.

Mr Zawe highlighted that the broiler market is relatively firm going toward the end of January 2017 with little to no stockholding.

Frozen chicken is retailing at $3.40/kg to $3.60/kg and with the imposition of VAT (value-added-tax) of 15 per cent on meat, the formal market is likely to be undercut by the informal live bird market.

It has also been reported that the government recently imposed a 15 per cent VAT on all meat products and cereals under Statutory Instrument 20 of 2017. However, the instrument was swiftly shelved following a public outcry, after it triggered price increase in basic commodities.

Mr Zawe also revealed that the market for day old chicks (DOC’s) declined by between 15 and 20 per cent due to low income and an increase in feed prices. The retail and wholesale prices for DOC’s are $65/100 and $70/100 chicks, respectively.

The chairman has been quoted indicating that the number of birds processed and broiler meat production in the formal sector in 2016 was 2 per cent lower and 6 per cent higher than 2015 and 2014, while the average live-weight decreased by 6 per cent from 1.90kg/bird in 2015 to 1.78kg/bird in 2016.

It has also been reported that broiler meat production trends were similar to the past three years and in 2016, increased to 3,719mt in June before crashing to 2,498mt in August. The increased production in the middle of the year culminated in stockholding of 1,759mt which contributed to the decline in prices and triggering subsequent crash in production.

He has also been quoted highlighting that the dramatic fluctuations in production have been partly attributed to grey imports over the period April to October each year. On the poultry meat prices, it has been highlighted that producer and wholesale prices remained soft and were 7-9 per cent lower than prices in 2015.

Total broiler meat production in 2016, inclusive of informal production (based on day-old chick sales), was estimated to be 118,000mt, with 70 per cent from the smallholder sector.