QUAIL bird production has come into Bulawayo with several poultry producers embracing the trade.
Quails (Izagwaca/zvihuta) are seen mostly during the rainy season in most parts of rural Zimbabwe and the birds are also found in different parts of the world including Europe and Asia.
As quail farming is a new concept being introduced in the country, one such a project is being run by a 15 member group in Nketa 9 under the trade name, Quail International.
Project manager Dumile Sibanda told Business Chronicle that it was out of motivation that drew them to venture into the project after learning of a quail project in Harare.
Equipped with the motivation for success and empowerment, he said they decided to embark on the project adding that each one of the members has a role in the project.
“We’ve a chairman for the project, treasurer, project manager who’s myself, a secretary, an internal auditor, and other members for various activities in order to keep the project running. Some of our members are not resident here (Nketa). Some come from Entumbane, and Morningside among others,” he said.
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| Bulawayo Embraces Quail Birds Production |
“We intend to supply the birds to hotels and retailers. One crate of quail eggs goes for $9 compared to those of chicken that range between $3 and $4,50 on the market,” he said.
He said a live bird is being sold at $10 and if slaughtered it is pegged at $5 for two.
“The price is much higher for a live quail than a slaughtered one because, a live bird has returns.
“Quails are on demand locally as their meat and eggs have a high nutritional value and thus serving as food and for medicinal elements.
For example, quail eggs have medicinal elements and research has proven that the eggs can cure diseases such as hypertension (BP), liver ailments, cancer as well as boosting the immune system. And for pregnant mothers, the eggs and meat have a nutritional content which helps in brain development of the unborn baby,” he said.
As their project grows, Sibanda said they intend to penetrate the export markets in countries such as South Africa and Dubai.
He said their project, which at the moment has 470 birds was being run at his house in Nketa 9 and plans were in progress to secure a plot from which the project would be run.
Recently they had secured a plot in Richmond but could not take the project to the site due to security issues.
“We received the first batch of the birds from Ruwa on the 9th of March. The batch had 333 chicks and 30 of them died because of fatigue.
The birds from the first batch are almost on the point of lay as it only takes six weeks for them to reach maturity. We also expect birds from the second batch to reach maturity in the next few weeks,” he said.
He said quail rearing requires the potential farmer to first get training before venturing into the project.
“There’s a benevolent farmer who is the one who taught us to enhance quail production in terms of the stockfeeds and rearing. Quail production has so many advantages over other birds for example, quails are easy to rear, they are disease resistant and also 20 quails can occupy a space that can be occupied by one broiler,” he said.
