Success leads to Aviagen distributer expansion in Zambia
Ross Breeders Africa, the Ross distributor in the African sub-continent, has recently decided to expand their operations in Zambia after 14 years of continued success for the Ross 308. This expansion consists of the creation of a new broiler hatchery, additional breeder houses, a new grandparent (GP) farm, staff housing and ancillary buildings.
The US$17 million expansion will be finalised in stages with October 2013 being the completion date for the hatchery, and the GP farm and parent breeder houses to be completed by the end of 2014. This project will provide 200 extra jobs in the poultry sector, together with significant increases in export revenues.
The new broiler hatchery will be located on the main breeding farm near the town of Chongwe.
The state of the art building is designed to cope with six hatches a week rather than the conventional four, resulting in the hatching of one million day old broiler chicks per week. Once the hatchery is completed, extra breeder houses will be installed tripling the production capacity of Ross Breeders Africa.
Michael Garden, Aviagen Business Manager, Middle East and Africa, had nothing but positive words to say about the project: “I would first of all like to congratulate Ross Breeders Africa for their continued investment and development of the business. Rising sales and demand for poultry across Africa is continued proof that the African subcontinent is incredibly important on a global scale. The forever improving performance of the Ross 308 bird over the last 14 years also shows that we have the right bird for the market with a distributor committed to service and quality.”
Ross Breeders Africa is part of the CBH Ltd group which is listed on the JSE and has operations in South Africa, Botswana and Zambia. The work, including design of the houses, was all carried out by African companies demonstrating the importance poultry breeding has to local economies.
