• Price of soya cake doubled from about K300 per 50 kilogram bag last year to K600 in 2021.
• The country might not be able to see a reduction in Chicken feed prices this year.
• If the cost of feed continues to rise, prices of commodities that use feed will also become high.
Poultry Association of Zambia (PAZ) says the country might not be able to see a reduction in Chicken feed prices this year due to the high price of Soya cake which is used in the production of feed.
Speaking in an interview with Money FM News, Association General Manager Dominic Chanda disclosed that at the beginning of the Market Season, the price of soya cake doubled from about K300 per 50 kilogram bag last year to K600 in 2021.
Mr Chanda said the other factor affecting the feed industry is the influx of foreign Nationals that flock into the country to mop up Soya beans because the commodity is very cheap on the export market due to the devaluation of the Zambian Kwacha.
He stated that if the cost of feed continues to rise, prices of commodities that use feed will also become high.
“It is very likely that the price of soya beans and the soya cake that is used to produce feed will continue to rise if Government does not regulate the export of soya beans and curb illegalities of the export of the commodity,” Mr Chanda noted.
He explained that if the feed producers do not have enough maize and Soya beans to produce feed, the price of feed will continue to rise as well, hence the need for the government to stock soya beans and maize harvested this year for the Zambian farmers to benefit.
“What happened last week where 70 trucks carrying soya beans were impounded due to suspected smuggling is very sad and must not re-occur for the benefit of the country,” he said.