Zimbabwe has been hit by chicken shortage, forcing some hotels that sell chicken to close early in a seemingly rationing move.
The shortage has affected the biggest chicken meat seller Chicken Inn, whose outlets in Bulawayo yesterday afternoon remained closed. The shop requires more than 20,000 chickens to satisfy fast food consumers in Zimbabwe.
“We need about 20,000 chickens a day, therefore there is a shortage of chickens countrywide which has affected all Chicken Inn outlets in Bulawayo, forcing them to temporarily shut down. This has also affected Chicken Inn outlets nationwide,’’ said Mr Warren Meares, a senior official from Chicken Inn who spoke to a local publication.
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A piece of chicken in most Zimbabwe urban fast food restaurants costs between $7 to $10 (Ksh700 to Ksh1,000). Vendors on the other side sell an egg for approximately Ksh33, $1 (Ksh100) for three up from $1(Ksh100) for six.
Early this year, poultry farmers admitted that the country had been hit by a chicken shortage due to the outbreak of highly pathogenic H5N8 bird flu last year.
“I think the shortage of eggs on the market is very obvious following the H5N8, people have been importing them since then, but we are expecting the shortage to go down as well as the prices,” said the Zimbabwe Poultry Farmers Association chairperson Retired Colonel George Nare.
In October last year the government announced a new regulation to suspend duty on fertilised egg importers.
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