[dropcaps]R[/dropcaps]oss Breeders Zambia officially opened the doors to its state of the art poultry abattoir called Supreme Chicken on the 29th of September 2015. The Supreme Chicken abattoir is one of the various upgrading expansion projects that Ross Breeders has further invested in to the poultry industry over the past two years.
The investment, described as phase one of the project has the capacity to process 80 000 birds per week. Ross expects Supreme Chicken to double its production capacity over the next few years to 160 000 birds per week. He explained this when PAZ Secretariat made a courtesy call at the Mimosa plant on Tuesday the 15th September 2015 to familiarize with the operations.
Mr. Colin Lindsay, the Managing Director at Ross Breeders said the new abattoir is a modern facility utilizing ammonium based refrigeration making it more efficient and more eco-friendly. To ensure internationally accepted products, Supreme Chicken has heavily invested in quality assurance by acquiring modern processing and storage facilities.
Mr. Lindsay assured the poultry consumers that all protocols and requirements are being observed at the new abattoir in Mimosa and that the company is waiting to get required certification to make their product export compliant. This will pave way for exports of frozen chicken in the future.
Further, the Director observed that the role the Zambian government has played in laying a foundation for poultry sector investment is commendable and should be continued. He indicated that this is to ensure sustained job creation across the various players in the poultry value chain and effective revenue contribution to the government treasurer. He indicated that continuous restriction of the importation of chicken into the Zambian market will play a major role in sustaining the growth the poultry industry has recorded so far.
It was highlighted that the investment by Supreme Chickens has currently created 96 direct jobs at the plant and is expected to employ a further 50 people in the second phase of the project. Mr. Lindsay indicated that in the past two years alone Ross Breeders Zambia has invested 25 million dollars in expanding facilities creating a further 600 direct jobs and a host of indirect jobs downstream.
The Director also indicated that Supreme Chicken will engage out growers/farmers to provide 80% of its requirements and this will not only provide linkages between farmers and the company but it will give the local poultry industry a significant boost. The launch of Supreme chicken brings the total number of commercial processors to 6 and this will ensure that the customer gets the best value for their money.
