BY MTHANDAZO NYONI
RAYMEG Holdings Limited, a member of the Zimbabwe Commercial Rabbit Breeders Association (Zicorba), plans to set up rabbit pellet-making and rabbit skin processing plants in Harare in a bid to boost rabbit production.
The company last year established a rabbit abattoir with a capacity to process 2,5 tonnes of rabbit meat per day in Harare.
“At the behest of Zicorba, private investor Raymeg Holdings Limited invested in Zimbabwe’s first export-certified rabbit abattoir, which is one of the biggest in Africa. The abattoir has a capacity to process 2,5 tonnes of rabbit meat per day. And plans are afoot to set up rabbit pellet-making and rabbit skin processing plants in Harare,” Zircorba said in its latest report.
In addition, Raymeg signed trade agreements with some of the country’s leading supermarket chains, namely Spar Zimbabwe, Choppies Zimbabwe and Pick ‘n Pay to sell veterinary-inspected rabbit meat in their stores, creating the much-needed market for rabbit meat.
Raymeg also sells rabbit meat through OK Zimbabwe, the biggest supermarket chain in Zimbabwe.
The company applied to the government and acquired permits to import more than 400 pure rabbit breeds from South Africa.
The idea was to improve the quality of the country’s rabbit breeding stock.
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“The imported breeding stock is being bred locally and we expect that about 2 000 pure breeds will be distributed to Zicorba members over a period of 12 months starting June 2021,” the report says.
Zicorba founding members will receive the pure breeds for free while other Zicorba members will pay a nominal fee to acquire the pure breeds.
The Zicorba leadership negotiated with stock feed companies, namely Agrifoods, National Foods and Capital Foods for discounts on rabbit pellets for the benefit of its members.
This helped in lowering the cost of production.
Formed in July 2020 by a group of rabbit farmers, Zicorba is the only collective voice of rabbit farmers in Zimbabwe.
In just 12 months, it has struck strategic partnerships with a number of other rabbit farmers’ associations in Africa, including Botswana, Kenya, Mozambique, South Africa and Uganda.
Zicorba has, in its first year of existence, wooed local businesspersons to invest in what was previously a neglected subsector.
This has turned rabbit farming into one of the most coveted and burgeoning enterprises in Zimbabwe.
Zicorba president Regis Nyamakanga said when they launched the association, they were under no illusion that it was going to be a “walk-in-the-park”.
“We knew that we had to contend with the effects of the Covid-19 pandemic,” Nyamakanga said.
“Memories were still fresh in people’s minds about the collapse of a rabbit association that had been formed in Zimbabwe a few years back.
“We also knew that the prevailing economic challenges in Zimbabwe would militate against our efforts at starting something new. But we were determined to forge ahead.
“Against this background, we took a deliberate position to craft a strategy of breathing life back into the rabbit farming sub-sector.”
The strategy is anchored on three key pillars: production, processing and marketing.
To date, they have established Zicorba chapters in each of the country’s 10 provinces.
Each Zicorba chapter has a seven-member executive led by a chapter president. At the national level, there is a national executive led by the national president.
Zicorba, a member of the Livestock and Meat Advisory Council of Zimbabwe, aims to broaden the participation of the majority of Zimbabweans in rabbit production, improve livelihoods, create employment among youth and women in particular, and to contribute to the country’s gross domestic product.
