ZICORBA gets backing from fellow African rabbit breeders

Business Reporters

African rabbit producers and Zimbabwean authorities have thrown the full weight behind the Zimbabwe Commercial Rabbit Breeders Association (ZICORBA) efforts to turn around the country’s cunninculture industry, as the organisation celebrated its second anniversary last month.

Leaders of industry associations from other African countries described ZICORBA as one of the most innovative and successful rabbit farmers’ lobby groups on the continent.

Nigeria’s Oyo State Rabbit Farmers and Breeders Association president, Pastor Josephine Oyelami, pledged her organisation’s continued cooperation with ZICORBA in the development of a strong African rabbit farming sector.

Rabbit Farmers Association of Zambia president, Chris Daka, said

ZICORBA’s achievements over the past two years were inspirational while Anton Gouws, an Executive of South Africa’s Gauteng Rabbit Breeders Association (GRBA), said his organisation would continue to play a part in the growth and development of the rabbit industry in Zimbabwe.

Timbu Iris Ntjenje, the president of Botswana’s Northern Rabbit Breeders Association (NORBA) said rabbit farmers in Botswana were encouraged by ZICORBA’s achievements over a relatively short space of time. She said NORBA was in talks with its Zimbabwean counterparts on the possibility of importing rabbit meat and rabbit breeding stock from the latter.

Rabbit Breeders Association of Kenya (RABAK) president Peter Waiganjo pledged his organisation’s continued support to ZICORBA and Zimbabwe’s rabbit industry while Mr Nathan Rotich, the Chief Executive of National Rabbit Training Institute of Kenya, said Zimbabwe was poised to play a leading role on rabbit production in Africa.

Buck and Doe of Uganda president Maggie Lukowe said she hoped that the partnership between her organisation and ZICORBA would continue to grow in leaps and bounds for the benefit of rabbit producers in Africa.

Mozambique Rabbit Producers Association president Edwardo Daveto threw his organisation’s weight behind ZICORBA.

 “We pledge our full support to the vision, mission, strategy of ZICORBA and look forward to greater cooperation between our two organisations.”

Zimbabwe’s Livestock and Meat Advisory Council (LMAC) Chief Executive, Dr Renneth Mano, said ZICORBA, which is the youngest livestock value-chain in the country, had made tremendous efforts in coming up with innovative ways to reorganise and re-energise the rabbit production sector.

The LMAC boss said ZICORBA had adopted a different approach in dealing with challenges in the sector by treating the problems as opportunities and crafting solutions to overcome them. LMAC is an umbrella body that represents 13 livestock

associations.

ZICORBA has made significant strides in building the commercial rabbit breeding industry in Zimbabwe, working with grassroots producers across the country, includings youths and women, by providing pure breeds imported to boost the country’s stock of hybrid rabbits for sale on the domestic and export markets.

Zimbabwe’s rabbit industry had virtually collapsed following the decade of economic crisis upm  to 2008 and the subsequent years when earlier efforts to reboot the industry did not last long. But due to efforts by ZICORBA, Zimbabwe is now a major producer, consumer and exporter of rabbit meat, which is also now a regular feature in major retailers and hotels.

Construction of Zimbabwe’s first export certified rabbit abattoir was completed in September last year, thrusting rabbit meat firmly on to the country’s white meat sub-sector, which was until recently, a preserve of pork, chicken and fish. The abattoir, which is one of the biggest rabbit meat processing facilities in the whole of Africa, has an installed capacity of between 2,5 tonnes and 3,5 tonnes of rabbit meat per day shift.

It is wholly-owned by Raymeg Consultants Private Limited, a corporate member of ZICORBA..

Raymeg is a diversified group with interests in agriculture, real estate, energy, private security, leisure and resorts, fishery and aquatic sectors as well as strategic communication and media management.

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