Zimbabwe Poultry Association has called on government to extend the suspension of import duty on fertilised eggs in order to help industry restock and recover following the outbreak of bird flu last year.

In an industry update, Poultry Association chairman, Mr Solomon Zawe said they have since presented a position paper to government for consideration to have the the import duty waiver renewed.

“Statutory Instrument 124 of 2017, which was gazetted to allow duty free importation of hatching eggs to bridge the supply gap of day-old chicks created by the outbreak of avian influenza expired on January 31 2018,”

“Due to the continued day-old chick deficit and slow recovery of local breeding capacity, the association has submitted a position paper for the renewal of the Statutory Instrument,” he said.

Following the outtbreak of the deadly bird flu disease which affected Irvine’s breeder sites in Harare, government gazetted Statutory Instrument 124 of 2017 which removed the levying of 40% import tax on fertilised eggs to assist breeders of day-old chicks to restock.

The moratorium was for a period of six months from August 1, 2017 to January 31, 2018 and was extended to a few selected breeders. Importation of fertilised eggs is highly monitored by government as one needs to be registered with the respective regulatory agency and issued with an import permit.

It can however be noted that since the outbreak of bird flu last year, poultry players have been failing to meet local demand as evidenced by shortages of day old chicks and table eggs in the market.

The Department of Veterinary Services through a public notice on avian influenza, has since declared the country avian flu-free.

The poultry sector continues to present opportunities to poultry farmers and entrepreneurs to venture into the business at any level of the value chain – as importers of fertilised eggs, hatchers or breeders or even producers of chickens for meat and eggs. The choice is yours..