Nearly 1,600 professional delegates from 53 countries visited the 123 exhibiting companies at the 3rd edition of Poultry Africa, which successfully concluded last Thursday in Kigali, Rwanda.
The poultry broiler and layer industry of the Sub-Saharan Africa met last week in Kigali for a stimulating business gathering with global suppliers and international speakers of the feed to food poultry supply chain.
Poultry Africa 2022, the most complete trade show for poultry professionals in Sub-Saharan Africa powered by VIV worldwide, kicked off with an exciting program and 22 speakers at the Leadership Conference on October 4th. This high-level conference welcomed industry leaders and top sector players from many countries, including Nigeria, Kenya, Uganda, to name a few. The attendees experienced a full day of inspiring and informative presentations on African industry updates, sustainable poultry production, opportunities and challenges for the egg industry in Africa, innovative feeding solutions and biosecurity for the African market.
The Poultry Africa 2-day Expo followed on October 5-6 presenting 123 exhibitors from 30 countries led by The Netherlands, Turkey, Belgium, France, Rwanda, India, Germany, Italy, United States and Kenya.
A wide range of products covering the full supply chain were on display, such as farm production equipment, animal health ingredients and additives, feed production equipment, data management solutions, breeding and hatching, farming, slaughtering, processing and egg handling systems.
Around 1,600 professional visitors took advantage of this 3rd edition of the event. Major visiting profiles included poultry farmers, veterinarians, nutritionists, breeders, feed ingredient and additive manufacturers, feed milling and processing operators, poultry product and farm equipment distributors, packaging equipment manufacturers, as well as scientists, media and institutions. Rwanda counted for 55% of the total visitors, while the remaining 45% came from 53 countries, with the African continent participation head by Uganda, Nigeria, Kenya, Tanzania, South Africa, Cameroon, Burundi, Ethiopia, Zimbabwe and Mozambique. This marked an increase in the international audience, compared to the last edition.
The outstanding quality of the visitors gave great satisfaction to the exhibitors. With 16% of the delegates being farm owners and 27% belonging to the companies’ top management, the decision making level of the regional industry was indeed well represented at the show.
While officially opening the event, the honorable minister of Agriculture and Animal Resources, Dr. Gerardine Mukeshimana, said “Rwanda’s poultry industry is transforming from subsistence to a more knowledge intensive and market oriented poultry farming”. According to the Ministry, poultry is one of the avenues to contribute to Rwanda national food and nutrition security, income generation and job creation. “With traditional feed prices on the rise, more research is needed to formulate alternative source of feed based on locally available and easily accessible components” added Dr. Mukeshimana. This overall outline of the industry in Rwanda applies to many other countries of the region as well.
HIGHLIGHTS: FEED COST CHALLENGES AND BIG MARKET OPPORTUNITIES
Together with the Poultry Africa event reports, the rising feed cost challenges also made the headlines in the region. Most of the countries both in the East and the West of Africa are dealing with this threat that caused drastic drops in profit margins in the past months, especially until Q2 of 2022. Tackling this pressing issue, at Poultry Africa the attendees could learn practical solutions on how to implement nutritional strategies to reduce feed costs, as well as best practices on poultry feed cost management. At the same time, the event gave a broader perspective on the topic, by bringing top-notch market data to the audience.
In his outlook of the African poultry industry, Dr. Nan-Dirk Mulder, global specialist Animal Protein for Rabobank, explained that feed costs increase is one of the key themes to be monitored in the region development. “There is a need to upgrade the local feed supply chain” he explained. “South Africa, Egypt and Kenya are still leading the African feed production, but the Sub-Saharan feed industry is growing fast especially in poultry feed” offering investment opportunities in the region.
Next to the several challenges that the continent presents, the African economy also offers huge opportunities with its GDP growing above global average.
As Dr. Mukeshimana stated during the show opening “The Poultry business is a growing agricultural sub-sector in Africa and it is expected to continue to grow as demand for meat and eggs continue to grow due to the demographic pressure, rising incomes and urbanization.”
“Poultry Africa 2022 had the honor to provide once again a productive international environment for the sector to network and discuss the opportunities that the African markets have to offer in the long term. At the same time, the event offered a unique business-oriented platform for the development of the poultry & egg industry in the region” said Mrs. Nienke van Soest, VNU Europe project manager Poultry Africa.
POULTRY AFRICA COMES BACK IN 2024
“The whole team will be back supporting the industry again to expand business in Africa from October 2-3, 2024. The fourth edition of Poultry Africa will be held in Kigali, Rwanda, once more at the KCC venue” said Mr. Zhenja Antochin, VNU Europe senior project manager.
Follow the full event reports published in the coming weeks on the official show website www.poultryafricaevent.com and via the VIV worldwide social media on LinkedIn, Facebook, and Twitter.
