In line with the Federal Government effort to attain self sufficiency in poultry production in the country, Agric International Technology and Trade Nigeria Limited (AGRITED) has made a N12 billion investment in Ogun, Oyo and Adamawa states to boost local production.
AGRITED and an Israeli farm have pledged to capture 20 percent market share of the daily Nigeria chicken production by 2030 going by its move to boost poultry investments across the country. The both organisation projected that consumption of daily chicken in the country would grow to about 548,000 tons within the next six years.
Speaking exclusively with BusinessDay at one of its poultry farms located at Ajebo, off Lagos-Ibadan at the weekend, Chaim Zach, managing director of AGRITED noted that the Israeli farm had brought in most-advanced technology that would boost local poultry production.
Zach declared that AGRITED was designed to be the largest poultry farmers in Nigeria with a huge supply chain of day-old chicks to thousands of poultry farmers, and millions tons of chicken and eggs for consumption among Nigerians, saying the move was to create wealth and massive job opportunities.
He said, “We brought a high poultry technology into the country and as a matter of strategy, we are serving thousands of farms and we decided not to compete with them because most of them are still working on traditional, old system and we decided to produce raw materials for them which are the chicks.
“Also, we buy thousands of trucks and tons of grains like maize, soya beans, wheat, sorghum and other inputs in Nigeria. We are already planning our growth according to poultry consumption in the country.
Speaking on behalf of Ogun state government, the duo of Adepeju Adebajo and Bimbo Ashiru, commissioners for agriculture as well as commerce and industry respectively, noted that it is high time for the country to encouraged poultry farming to curb unnecessary imports of poultry products putting pressure on the country’s balance of payment.
Adebajo said that efforts were underway to empower farmers in the state to produce grain used as inputs for poultry feeds in order to boost supply, Bimbo Ashiru, commissioner for Commerce and Industry, said government would continue to create enabling environment for investments to thrive.
Adepeju said, “We want to make Ogun state, the poultry capital of Nigeria like we did in manufacturing industry. We are helping our farmers to ensure that we increase land under cultivation, to ensure that they have access to right inputs, seeds, fertilisers and also link them up with off-takers and poultry farms like AGRITED.”
RAZAQ AYINLA
