ZAMBIA – A Luanshya agricultural company intends to set up a poultry processing plant in the town at a cost of US$560,000.

Goldenlay Agri Limited, producer and supply of table eggs, intends to set up the chicken processing plant at its Kafubu Farm on the outskirts of Luanshya town.

The company intends to set up the plant to slaughter and process spent hens.

Spent hens are egg-laying birds which are no longer commercially profitable, and are used for cheap meat after their lifelong confinement producing eggs in battery cages ends.

In an environmental impact assessment report submitted to the Zambia Environmental Management Agency (ZEMA), Goldenlay intends to increase the capacity of its poultry production to about one million birds for the production of eggs at Kafubu and Baluba farms near Luanshya in the next few years.

This development will lead to the increased number of spent hens when their egg-laying circle is over, and given the projected growth and the competitive market for selling the unproductive fowls, the company plans to slaughter and debone the birds.

“Previously, all the spent hens from the poultry houses at the farm were sold off to the local markets for domestic consumption,” the report indicates.

The proposed 20-year project will include activities such as physical works associated with the site preparation, construction, operational and closure phases.

The scope of works will include, among other things, the construction of effluent management, waste disposal facilities and cold storage infrastructure.

Others are a chicken processing plant shed and associated infrastructures on a 12.5-hectare plot within the farm at the old dairy milking parlour.

“Also to be included in the project is the installation of 750-kilovolt transformers to supply the plant with daily power requirements for production,” the report indicates.

Other project components which are important are birds’ reception area, cooling units and ammonia plant, effluent treatment plant, laundry, toilets, change and cleaning room for the staff.

December 9, 2015; https://www.daily-mail.co.zm/?p=51993