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Elita Chikwati Agriculture Reporter
The poultry industry was heavily affected by Covid-19 in 2020, resulting in a decrease in production, the Lands, Agriculture, Fisheries, Water and Rural Resettlement Ministry has said.

The Second Crop and Livestock Assessment Report recently presented by Lands Minister Anxious Masuka before Cabinet indicates that day old chick production decreased by 2,5 percent from 73,4 million in 2019 to 71,4 million in 2020.

Broiler meat production decreased by 2 percent from 114 300 tonnes in 2019 to 111 600 tonnes in 2020.

“Small-scale broiler production continued to dominate production accounting for 73 percent of the total broiler meat produced,” said the ministry.

“The Covid-19 pandemic heavily affected poultry in 2020. The Covid-19 movement and curfew restrictions resulted in low uptake of day old chicks and restricted marketing of finished broilers and eggs.”

The ministry stated that a total of 670 084 chicks were gassed in 2020 compared to 91 079 in 2019 and this was mainly attributed to the Covid-19 pandemic restrictions.

There has been a 14 percent decrease for local layer day old chick production in 2020, the ministry said. It notes that 2 637 000 chicks were produced in 2020 compared to 3 065 000 chicks in 2019.

According to the ministry, egg production continued to increase, reaching a new high of 59,3 million dozens in 2020, surpassing 2019 production by 18 percent (50,4 million dozens) and was 7 percent higher than previous record of 55,3 million achieved in 2016. Small-scale table eggs production accounted for about 59 percent of the total table egg production.