Local poultry abattoir ready for SADC market
Serowe based Poultry Abattoir owner, Cecilia Opelokgale plans to export poultry meat as she has been able to penetrate the local market and recorded good success despite the challenges.
Sharing her business experiences with the media last week, Opelokgale said she is already dominating in the Central region and she wants to start exporting to expand her business.
“We have already been assisted by Botswana Investment and Trade Centre through short courses on portal services. So, we have plans to start selling our meat to other countries,” she said.
She told The Business Trends that she is eyeing the SADC region. “I have not yet established the market in other countries but I have seen potential in Zimbabwe. I am already supplying the whole central district and have started North, I have grown in the local market so I can go beyond borders,” said Opelokgale.
The abattoir, named Copel Rancho started in 2004 but resumed production in 2008. The business is still assisted by Local Enterprise Authority (LEA) through training and mentoring
Opelokgale explained that Copel Rancho Abattoir’s mandate is to group small poultry farms and sell through one marketing channel. There are about 50 small farmers that are slaughtering in the abattoir.
“Individual farmers always come to slaughter in our facility at the charge of P4.00 per bird. My aim is to promote market competence to local farm producers in Botswana,” said Opelokgale.
Opelokgale buys about 3000 live chicks ageing from day old to six weeks from local farmers. Currently they slaughter about 16000 live chickens in a month, with the maximum slaughter rate per day being 500 chickens.
As part of their expansion plans, Opelokgale wants to buy the slaughtering machine which will enable them to slaughter 500 birds per hour. “We are still waiting for approval from the veterinary services. After that, we will request P2.2 million from Citizen Entrepreneurial Development Agency (CEDA)”.
Some of the challenges of the abattoir is low production because most of the work is done manually. Opelokgale started poultry farming from a backyard system in 2003 and expanded it in a one-hectare farm funded by CEDA in 2004.
