Environmental broiler houses commissioned in Zimbabwe
Zimbabwean agro-conglomerate, CFI Holdings, has commissioned some environmentally-controlled broiler houses at its Glenara Estates, which will see its breeding capacity increase by 35%.
The Zimbabwe Stock Exchange-listed company, through it’s division Crest Poultry Group has invested US$2,6 million into the project.
“We can now breed about 620,000 broilers at any given time from about 460,000 birds we were keeping before installation of these facilities,” CPG managing director Dr Tapera Mpezeni said.
The old housing facilities were open-sided but studies have shown that mortality rates in conventional houses were higher than those in controlled houses. On average, mortality rates in open-sided housing averages between 8-10% against between 2-3% in computerised environmentally-controlled housing.
With the new breeding capacity levels, Mpezeni said the company was in a better position to stand competition from imports, particularly from Brazil.
CFI consultant Mr Don McDevitt said the group intended to build more houses at an estimated cost of US$5 million. He added that plans were also in place to build an abattoir at the estates to achieve an integrated poultry facility.
