Poultry farmers have welcomed a new hatchery inaugurated in Musanze, saying it will not only bring prices down but also help them have healthy and productive chicks.

The hatchery, Easy Hatch, opened last week in Muhoza Sector, Musanze District. It is owned by South African businessman Themba Mashinini.

Owners say the idea to open shop in Rwanda was informed by a two-year study that revealed that the market potential was hampered by the fact that most farmers had to travel abroad to get chicks.

Easy Hatch is the first private hatchery that will highly complement the services offered by the national hatchery run by Rwanda Agriculture Board.

The project has capacity to produce 20,000 chicks per week with plans to increase the production depending on the market demand.

It produces both layers and broilers.

Poultry farmers from various parts of the county said the new hatchery will ease challenges related to importation of chicks from countries like Uganda, Malawi, Zambia or Europe.

Christine Nyiransabimana, a poultry farmer in Kanombe, Kicukiro District in Kigali, said lack of enough hatcheries had been one of the biggest challenges for poultry farmers.

She added that they used to travel abroad to buy chicks, which was expensive, time consuming and risky for chicks due to long journeys.

"Due to an increase of poultry farmers, the national hatchery allowed us to order chicks abroad but the main challenge is that chicks reach us extremely tired while others died as a result of long journey. Unfortunately, we can’t ask for compensation for the dead chicks,” said Nyiransabimana.

"We are excited. Chick cost Rwf950 from Kisoro in Uganda and over Rwf1,000 from the Netherlands. Now that we are getting a hatchery closer to us, we are optimistic we will be getting them at a lower cost,” said Emmanuel Rwirangira, a poultry farmer from Mbogo Sector in Rulindo District.

He added that the new hatchery will help farmers save money they used to pay on importation of chicks.

‘Cost-effective chicks’

In an interview with The New Times, Themba Mashinini, the Easy Hatch managing director, said their intention was to bring in productive chicks that are cost-effective and productive to contribute towards the poultry industry development in a country he says eases doing business.

"We carried out research and we found out that there is a big shortage of chicks in the country and also in neighbouring countries. As a result, I thought this is the area in which I can make a contribution in terms of producing chicks locally,” said Mashinini.

"Poultry industry is undeveloped due to under supply of chicks, farmers currently import chicks from Uganda, Malawi and other regional countries and from Europe, some say the chicks arrive tired while others die along the way, we intend to address those issues by helping farmers get chicks closer to them.”

Mashinini said a chick at Easy Hatch goes for Rwf700, while it would cost up to Rwf1,000 when imported.

"We are in trial phase, after this phase we will increase production based on the demand. We are hoping to bring down the price in the future,” he said.

Officials from Rwanda Agriculture Board (RAB) say Easy Hatch will fill the gap of chicks supply in the country.

"The new hatchery shows that we are now going to get sufficient chicks on the local market, this will boost poultry industry,” said Jean Claude Izamuhaye, the head of Northern Agricultural Zone.

Rwanda produced over 16,000 tonnes of poultry meat and 6,973 tonnes of eggs per annum as of 2014, according to statistics from RAB.

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