The Development of a semi-integrated

Inclusive Broiler Production Model at Lot

1 of Maple Farm, Norton
Proposal to set up a semi-integrated and
inclusive broiler production value chain at Lot
1 of Maple Farm, Norton

Proposed to:

CHICKEN HUT

By:

Chams Agriculture Pvt Ltd

22 October 2018

Revised 04 October 2023

Chams Agriculture Pvt Ltd

General Background
Chicken Hut is a Zimbabwean Portuguese-themed chicken-centred fast food company that was
established in 2016. The company now has established six serving branches in the country, with another
six expected in the next twelve months.

As implied, the key raw material for CHICKEN HUT is chicken meat. The current supplier of chicken to
Chicken Hut are the various poultry processors in Harare, which include Sable, Drummond, etc.

Chams Agriculture is a company that has been formed to produce live chickens at Maple Farm in Norton
through small scale and medium scale farmers utilizing the land at Maple Farm. In addition, some small
scale and medium scale farmers outside Maple Farm but within Greater Harare will also be contracted
to grow additional birds for the project.

This model is particularly inclusive and empowers the small scale farmers with skills, employment and
income. Chams Agriculture currently has over 50 interested growers on its books, and can easily
mobilize many more who have poultry growing facilities.

Chams Agriculture has the poultry production and processing skills and capacity, whilst Chicken Hut has
got the value addition, marketing and distribution skills.

Because of these synergies between the two companies, Chicken Hut is keen to engage Chams
Agriculture to partner with it in the development of an inclusive and semi-integrated broiler production
unit at Maple Farm in Norton. This scheme will be complemented by another group of communal and
small scale growers growing chickens at their properties for the project, guided by the standards of
Chams Agriculture.

It is envisaged that Chams Agriculture will bring in their expertise to grow chickens and run an inclusive,
empowering and organized production model, whilst Chicken Hut will offtake the chicken to feed
through its chain of fast food shops.

Therefore the key participants in this model will be Chicken Hut, Chams Agriculture, small scale and
medium scale broiler growers and input suppliers. The suppliers of these other growing inputs will be
co-ordinated by Chams Agriculture.

Model Expectations
It is expected that the model will achieve the following goals:

1. Empower small scale farmers and other professionals with the skills to produce chickens.
2. Empower these people with incomes and employment
3. Create a steady throughput of chicken through the Chicken Hut fast food chain.
4. Create a market both locally and in the region for specialized processed broiler meats.
5. Full utilization of Maple Farm.
6. Create a market for grain farmers who will be supplying maize and soya to the feed mill.
7. Act as a centre of excellence for existing and aspiring poultry farmers

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Poultry Production and Consumption in Zimbabwe
The consumption of poultry products in Zimbabwe appeared modest until 2009 when the country
dollarized the economy after some years of serious hardships and consumer product shortages. Then,
because the beef industry was crippled with shortages and meat became scarce, the only meat that
could be accessed at reasonable prices was chicken, which some businesses started importing from
South Africa and the Americas.

It appears that the majority of Zimbabweans altered their consumption patterns then. According to the
Zimbabwe Poultry Association, the per capita consumption of poultry before 2009 hovered around 3.5
kg. In 2009, this figure rose spectacularly to 7.5kg, and in 2017 this figure became 9.5-11kg. In 2023,
the per capita consumption was estimated to be between 12-and 13kg per person per year (ZPA, 2023).

The Chicken Fast Food Industry (Quick Service Restaurants QSR)

Whilst most of this chicken is consumed in households, the growth of the fast food industry that serves
mainly chicken has been a very significant off-taker of chickens. Over the past few years, this industry
saw the emergence of several chicken fast food businesses which depend on local production of
chicken. These include both local and international brands.

It is worth noting that one bottleneck to the supply of chicken to this sector has been the reduced
capacity by producers to produce the live bird with the required weight specifications required for the
fast food chicken cuts. This becomes very noticeable especially during the festive season when these
fast food outlets experience roaring business. Therefore there is great scope of having more production
and processing of chicken to meet the demand of this growing sector.

Chicken Hut is one of these companies which will need more product as they grow. This company
intends to grow its market share to compete against the traditional giants which include Chicken Inn,
Chicken Slice, Nandos and KFC.

Inclusive Growth

The growth of the chicken market has to be preceded by the organization and growth of the supply
chain, mainly of the chicken, and this is what Chicken Hut is pro-actively wanting to achieve by
embarking on this venture in partnership with Chams Agriculture. This growth will be sweeter if it is
inclusive and ropes in small scale and medium scale farmers which will participate in this value chain and
create an economy in the rural and small scale farming areas.

It is our considered view that leaving the production of chickens to individuals will not guarantee
continuity of supply because farmers are often constrained by lack of resources to purchase enough
inputs, they lack husbandry skills and are not well-equipped with market intelligence.

This partnership is bringing all these to the table to capacitate the farmers.

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Establishing a Semi-Integrated Broiler Production Unit
A semi-integrated broiler production unit is being proposed by Chicken Hut for Maple Farm in Norton
with the aim of substantially increasing the production capacity of chickens most of which will be
feeding through the Chicken Hut fast food chain.
The proposed operation will achieve self-sufficiency for Chicken Hut within six months and thereafter,
the excess chickens will be processed either into dressed birds for the supermarket shelves or processed
into frozen meats and other related products for both the domestic and export markets.
 The proposed production unit is envisaged to produce about 1 million broiler birds per year in
the first three years before doubling in the third year.

The contemplated facilities are based on world-class but very simple design standards, latest
technologies, automated systems and quality control whose strengths will be bio-security.

The primary facilities of this model, for Phase One, will include:

 10 x 2000 birds capacity open side poultry houses with associated bio-security facilities.
 10 x 10 000 birds a house open sided poultry houses with associated bio-security facilities.
 Chicken Abattoir and processing plant with capacity for 5000 birds a day, upgradable to 10 000
birds a day in due course.
 Organized and well-sited main compound, including offices and worker accommodations
 A feed mill with capacity to produce 30 000 metric tonnes of pelleted/crumbled feed a year.

Complementing the above will be a group of 10 farmers who will be growing chickens at their farms/
homesteads/ small scale farms producing 5000 birds each per cycle.

Long-term benefits of Establishing a Poultry Operation

At full operation, the operation will run the various units (the feed mill, the broiler production units, the
abattoir and processing units) as independent, profitable and fully integrated enterprises. But more
importantly, the project will promote the development of the poultry sector in Zimbabwe.

It will do so in various ways:

 The entire operation will act as a showcase for advanced production practices that can be
adopted by the local poultry sector, as this will be a centre of excellence.
 Significant meat production increase: The operation will produce about 1 million birds worth of
broiler meat, increasing local production substantially.
 Development of poultry meat exports into the region, which stopped over 25 years ago.
 Creation of ~150 jobs within the operation (70 in the broiler units, 50 in the poultry abattoir, 30
in the feed mill).
 Demonstration of Zimbabwe's initiative in addressing global Food Security challenges

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 PROPOSED BROILER PRODUCTION MODEL AT MAPLE FARMS, LOT 1

CHARMS AGRICULTURE PVT LTD

Inputs – Chicks, feeds, vet chemicals

Extension support

MAPLE COMPEX
TEN INDEPENDENT
BROILER CONTRACT
FARMERS
FARMERS

Live broiler chickens

MAPLE MAPLE BROILER ABATTOIR

SPECIAL CUT CHICKENS DRESSED WHOLE BIRDS, MIXED PORTIONS

SPECIAL CUTS AND COLD MEATS

CHICKEN HUT FAST FOOD SHOPS

LOCAL AND EXPORT MARKETS

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HOW THE MODEL IS PROPOSED TO WORK
 Chams Agriculture will, in Phase One, construct 10 x 2000 bird capacity houses and 10x 10 000
bird capacity houses at Maple Farm.
 Chams Agriculture will invite 10 resource challenged communal / small scale farmers to take up
each of the 2000 bird capacity houses as tenants.
 Chams Agriculture will invite 10 medium scale farmers/ business minded people to take up
tenancy of the 10 000 bird capacity houses.
 These twenty people, with their employees, will be trained by Chams Agriculture on proper
chicken husbandry.
 They will then be supplied with day old chicks, feed and veterinary chemicals to produce broiler
chickens.
 Chams Agriculture will be maintaining an oversight/ monitoring role on these farmers to ensure
they are looking after the birds properly.
 On maturity the birds will be harvested and slaughtered in the Maple abattoir on-site for either
the Chicken Hut fast food outlets or for the local and export external markets.
 The farmers will be paid their gross profit, which will generally be total revenue minus the total
cost of direct inputs supplied by Chams Agriculture, and the rent charged by Chicken Hut.
 The chicken houses will then rest for three weeks before another cycle of birds is placed.
 Therefore a total of 6 flocks will be placed in an all-in all-out system.
 This means a total of 720 000 birds will be produced per year at Maple Farm only.
 An extra 10 farmers outside Maple farm will also be contracted to grow 5000 birds per farm per
cycle each. This will add a further 300 000 birds to the project each year, making this a total of
1 020 000 birds per year.

CLARITY ON FACILITIES

THE CHICKEN HOUSES

These will be built and owned by Chams Agriculture.

Contract farmers will be renting these from Chams Agriculture.
It is up to Chams Agriculture as to the terms and conditions of these leases.

THE FEEDMILL

The feed mill will be a 30 000 metric tonnes of feed a year capacity.
This will be built by Chams Agriculture.
Chams Agriculture will run the Feedmill.
The feed will feed the chickens at Maple and those grown by the 10 outgrower farmers.
The excess feed will be sold into the market.

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THE BROILER ABATTOIR/ PROCESSING PLANT

This will be a 5000 a day abattoir, upgradable to 10 000 birds a day in due course. Chams Agriculture
will build this abattoir either manage it themselves.

POSSIBLE STAGES OF DEVELOPMENT OF THE MODEL

First prize, all the required facilities need to be completed for the project to work optimally.
However, this is not practically possible.
Easiest option to get started is to have Chams Agriculture contracting farmers with chicken houses
to
grow the birds which Chams Agriculture would harvest and toll process at an abattoir, then
supplying
Chicken Hut.
Chams Agriculture would be getting the chicks, feed and other inputs from manufacturers and
supplying the farmers. For this to be a success, Chams Agriculture would need to establish good
relationships with these input suppliers in order to access reasonably priced inputs on terms that
support the model.
The facilities can then follow as the model matures.

CONCLUSION
This partnership feels that when resource-constrained farmers in the country are guaranteed
supply of inputs and technical know-how, with a guaranteed market, they will produce
adequate food, chickens, in this case.
This will also allow the owners of Chicken Hut to focus on an aggressive marketing of their
products to grow their market share, and hence the business.

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