Kenyan poultry farmers hit by bad deal
Poultry farmers in Kenya are facing an uncertain future following investment into a company which is no longer purchasing poultry and their products.
Dorep, entered into an agreement with hundred of farmers spread across the country and now the members are now stuck with thousands of eggs and have no idea where to sell them.
Local producer Sammy Ndung’u, recently borrowed Sh200,000 from the Agriculture Finance Corporation which he invested into the Dorep poultry project.
“Since early last year, I have been getting good returns and I reasoned that since the market has never been a problem, I could put up more chicken houses and purchase more chicks from Dorep. The chicks are four months old and I am worried I will not have a market for the eggs when they start laying in a month,” said Ndung’u.
Dorep has officials in major towns in Central, Rift Valley and Eastern provinces, but has instructed farmers to stop the weekly supply of eggs until further communication. The firm says farmers are to blame since most of them failed to adhere to instructions for producing quality eggs.
“We have incurred a loss of over Sh20 million after farmers supplied us with sub-standard eggs which failed to hatch,” the company stated arguing that due to the skyrocketing price of chicken feeds, farmers have resorted to buying sub-standard feeds which affect the fertility of the eggs.
He added that the problem was being dealt with but in the future, farmers would only be paid after the supplied eggs hatch to minimise losses.
Source: AllAfrica.com
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