When the Food Reserve Agency – FRA announced a 36% maize buying price increase, it was heralded as a good decision, especially for the farmers. FRA went on to increase buying prices for Soya and other key commodities. For the initiated, it was clear from that time that it was the consumers who would eventually pick up the tab and foot the bill.
It is important for us to understand and appreciate that what may be referred to as good prices for farmers, eventually lands back at the consumers or general public in form of price increases. The increase in buying prices by FRA in itself is not a bad thing, but what the country seems to struggle with is that these increases need to be managed, need to be gradual and minimal year on year for consumers to be able to adjust.
What is now happening is only a domino effect, commercial suppliers of day old chicks across the country have one by one come forward and announced increases in prices of day old chicks, with many citing the depreciation of the kwacha as the main reason for the price hikes.
Ross Breeders Zambia Limited is the latest commercial breeders to announce a price increase of day old chicks by about 14% from K14 to K16 per bird effective 19 July 2021. This increase effectively means that the retail prices of chicken will also follow suite and go up by a similar margin.
Ross Breeders Sales Coordinator Francis Mwila has explained that feed prices for the parent stock have continued to go up which means the production for the parent stock, which produces the eggs where the day old chicks come from, has also increased.
Mwila said the company does not have all the raw materials used to manufacture feed for the parent stock, therefore it imports the materials that are not available in the country from South Africa and other foreign countries.
Speaking in an interview with the Zambian Business Times – ZBT, Mwila said these materials are imported using foreign currency (in US dollars) and with the weakening of the Kwacha, manufacturing feed has become expensive due to the high prices of the imported raw materials and feed supplements.
He noted that feed prices for day old chicks have also gone up in a range of about 20-25% due to the kwacha losing its value against major convertibles. “The price of maize, soya beans and all the other locally available raw materials that are used in the manufacturing of chicken feed have gone up, so that’s why you are seeing the prices of feed going up”, he said.
A check by ZBT also revealed that even the Food Reserve Agency – FRA announced some notable increase in buying prices for Maize and Soya beans (key materials for stock feed) in 2021 which is now being felt after millers, stock feed manufacturers and traders price in the current prices. See article on Govt nods 36% maize price hike
