Cross River Industrial Revolution: Calachika Chicken Processing Factory As Part Of Government Mediated Private Sector
In every nation of the world, an economic reform is a continuous process. Agricultural & economic reforms aimed at improving on the self-sufficiency rate of food. This reforms aim to reviewing the basic law of food, Agriculture and Rural Areas promulgated to increase the self-sufficiency rate of food on a calorie basis from its present level to 45 percent as at the year 2025.
Despite the advent of Globalization all the developed economies of the world are very keen on the issue of self-sufficiency especially as relates to food and drinks.
The same view of self-sufficiency led to the Japanese Government comparison with other developed economies in the area of self-sufficiency rate which led them to think of Agricultural reforms.
Based on the efforts of other parts of the world, the present Government had introduced Agricultural reforms which led to banning of imported frozen chicken and turkey. The main objective behind this policy is to encourage local poultry farmers as well as creation of new industries that will process the chicken produced by the nation’s numerous poultry farmers into the so called “frozen chicken”.
The ban created another lucrative business opportunities for Nigeria investors. If this opportunity is well utilized it will go a long way to discourage the importation of frozen chicken/turkey and other similar products into the country. It will make poultry/ livestock farming more lucrative, since more farmers would be created out of the policy.
Agriculture accounts for 35% of Nigeria’s GDP. Before the ascendancy of oil, agriculture was the country’s major earner of foreign currency. Now that oil is on the decline, there is great clamour for diversification of the Nigerian economy.
This has redirected attention to agriculture and now the government of Nigeria is paying unprecedented attention to agricultural development – both as an instrument for reducing the nation’s import bill and as a potential leading source of foreign currency. The Nigerian poultry industry contributes approximately 25% to agricultural GDP. Since about 2008, there has been a deliberate national drive to promote agriculture as business. The federal government encouraged farmers to upgrade from subsistence to commercial agriculture.
With the ban came demand from over 200 million Nigerians. The only solution was to develop a project that will compete favorably with the imported products in terms of quality and quantity.
It is for this reason, Governor Ben Ayade came up with the ultra-modern Calachika chicken processing factory, the first of its kind in the South-south region. The factory is installed with a capacity to process about 6,000 frozen chicken per hour, although it has a production capacity of 22,000 birds per hour. This state-of-the-art factory is designed to be an off-taker for every allied poultry products produced in the state.
With an ever-growing urban population, an expanding middle class and an improving rural economy, demand for meat is sure to increase over the years. Frozen chicken offers a very fast and healthy approach to meeting the growing demand for animal protein. With government protection for the local producers against unfair international competition, the Nigerian poultry and frozen chicken industry is likely to maintain a positive trajectory. Thus, numerous new investments are appearing in the poultry value chain.
This project is considered very good as it has provided the much needed quality products and serves a large market demand. With the fast increase in the numbers of fast food centers, the need for the setting up of local chicken processing and packaging plants cannot be over emphasis. There are so many fast food centers that require several tons of processed chicken. There are so many market women that are in need of where to purchase that processed live chicken for sales. Therefore study has shown that there is wide market for this product.
One may ask where the processing factory will be fed from. It will be fed from the biggest poultry farm in Nigeria, the ultra modern Cross River Integrated Poultry Farm.
The Poultry farm located the Calabar Odukpani road churns out thousands of birds to the chicken processing factory. The poultry has six broiler houses, layers and the hatchery.
There are three products from poultry farm:, the broilers which is the one for eating that goes to the slaughter house, the egg production which is the hatchery, it has an incubator system that will give you the layers, the layers give you about one million eggs per day.
The poultry farm has a highly automated and climate regulated hatchery so it goes through the incubator and a day old chick is produced and goes to the public, the public grows it to maturity and sells to the slaughter house.
The farm runs with latest technology in poultry production such as the eco friendly system which is a new technique in poultry farming
Cross River is eyeing the West African sub region for the supply of its poultry products from the poultry farm and Calachika.
While Calachika slaughters, processes and freezes the Chickens both for export and local consumption, the poultry farm, beyond satisfying local needs, will have its products- day old chicks and eggs-exported.
Ayade’s ingenuity in making the difference in Agricultural value chain is on the verge of clearly establishing Cross River ahead of other African countries as the veteran of poultry production in Africa.
The Cross River Integrated Poultry Farm Ltd and the Calachika Chicken processing plant is a perfect combination that has the potentials of launching the state into a poultry exporting state, apart from hugely meeting local consumption demands
Short URL: http://www.senatorbenayade.org/?p=12180
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