Owned by Hudani Manji Holding Limited, the facility is situated in Semuto Nakaseke District about 107 kilometers North West of the capital, Kampala.
Hudani Manji Holdings managing director, Rafik Manji said the new plant will
reduce the supply gap of poultry products such as chickens on the market.
“The demand for chicken protein is on the rise in Uganda among the growing middle class whose lifestyle s are changing to appreciate more white meat based diets. This demand has quickly outstripped supply because there is no dominant integrated player in the Uganda poultry sector that is itself ,highly unregulated. That is why we are coming up with this plant in Uganda to close the supply gap” he said.
In agriculture, the poultry sub-sector is one which has not attracted many investors compared to others.
The majority of people involved are small holder farmers who cannot always meet the demand for chickens at both local and regional level.
He said due to the wide gap in supply of chicken products on the Ugandan market this has pushed up the prices of the little available products on the market.
Manji said chicken products should be available and affordable by the local and middle income consumers in the country.
According to the statistic from the company it reveals that the new plant has the capacity to close the supply gap at the moment because its total output capacity stands at 32,500 birds per week .and the total abattoir capacity is 2500 birds per hour and 220,000 birds per week.
When asked about quality assurance which is place to ensure that Ugandan consumes quality poultry products Manji said the company has heavily invested in Quality assurance especially by acquiring modern storage facilities.
“At the plant we have cold storage processes in this facility that include transport for both chilled and frozen distribution, to ensures that chicken reaches the customer when they are still fresh and of the best quality” he told the East African BusinessWeek.
The new Broiler farm and processing plant will be the first highly mechanized abattoir in Uganda and the largest chicken processing facility in east Africa the uniqueness of the plant is that its highly automated which dramatically shortens the production time.
On addition of being automated one the plant has got superior temperature control system the temperature is controlled from the abattoir through the distribution chain until the chicken reaches the customer .This include the superior cleansing spin-cliller before chicken is placed in blast freezers where temperature can drop to below -30 C Degrees and use of infra –red thermometers before packing to ensure the birds temperature are maintained between 0 and 10-C Degrees.
Apart from closing the gap in the supply chain of chickens on the market the new plant is going to be source of Employment both to the Human resources and also to the local farmers.
Manji said the firm current is employing 300 staff on permanent basis of which majority are locals from the vicinity of the plant and he promised that the number of job opportunities will keep on increasing as the plant expands, he added that the Semuto plant is going to offer market opportunity for the local farmers produces both for the chicken feeds but also for the entire staff at the plant.
businessweek
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