Nearly 1,600 professional delegates from 53 countries visited the 123 exhibiting companies at the 3rd edition of Poultry Africa which successfully concluded on 6 October in Kigali, Rwanda
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 4 October. This high-level conference welcomed industry leaders and top sector players from many countries such as Nigeria, Kenya, and 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.
Zooming into future possibilities, a lively panel discussion on alternative ingredients for animal feed also took place in the afternoon. Market trends, data management strategies, and other topics around the poultry and egg operations were disclosed to an engaging audience. The Poultry Africa 2-day Expo followed on 5-6 October 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, among which farm production equipment, animal health ingredients and additives, feed production equipment, data management solutions, breeding and hatching, farming, slaughtering, processing and egg handling systems.
Visiting profiles ranged from poultry farmers, veterinarians, nutritionists and breeders to scientists, media and institutions. Rwanda accounted for 55% of the total visitors, while the remaining 45% came from 53 countries. There seemed to be a significant increase in international audience, compared to the previous edition. Moreover, 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.
“Rwanda’s poultry industry is transforming from subsistence to a more knowledge intensive and market oriented poultry farming,” said the Honorable Minister of Agriculture and Animal Resources, Gerardine Mukeshimana, while officially opening the event. “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,” he added.
Together with the Poultry Africa event reports, the rising feed cost challenges also made the headlines in the region. 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, Nan-Dirk Mulder, global specialist animal protein for Rabobank explained that feed costs increase was 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.
However, despite the several challenges that the continent presents, the African economy also offers huge opportunities with its GDP growing above global average. During the show opening, Mukeshimana stated that the poultry business was a growing agricultural sub-sector in Africa, with its growth expected to shoot up as the demand for meat and eggs continued to grow.
“Poultry Africa 2022 had the honor to once again provide a productive international environment for the sector to network and discuss the opportunities that the African markets had to offer in the long term. At the same time, the event offered a unique business-oriented platform for the development of the poultry and egg industry in the region” said Nienke van Soest, VNU Europe project manager Poultry Africa.
The fourth edition of Poultry Africa will be back in 2024 at Kigali, Rwanda.
