Kenya To Start Exporting One-Day-Old Chicks To Malaysia And Mauritius

Kenya has secured a deal with Malaysia and Mauritius to begin the exports of one-day-old chicks to these countries. According to the Director of Veterinary Services Obadiah Njagi, talks between the two nations talks are part of Kenya’s plan to increase live animal exports.

Njagi says officials from the two nations have already toured some of the country’s breeding facilities, adding that the government has initiated plans to increase chicken production to meet demand in the two countries.

Malaysia has been reporting chicken shortages over the past months. The shortage was attributed to the rising costs of chicken production, disease infection, and weather conditions. This pushed the country to stop exporting as many as 3.6m chickens every month until domestic prices and production stabilize.

The chick export to Malaysia and Mauritius comes a month after Tanzania banned Kenya’s old-day chicks to protect its domestic poultry markets. Tanzania minister for livestock and fisheries Abdalla Ulega said the decision was also aimed at mitigating the bird flu pandemic.

Tanzania has been one of Kenya’s buyers of day-old chicks. Kenya sold more than 250,000 chicks to Tanzania every month. The ban pushed Kenya to shift to its other key markets such as DRC and Uganda where the business is thriving.

According to 2019 data, 5,000 to 10,000 old-day chicks were exported daily through the Malaba and Busia border points. This was due to increased demand from buyers based in Jinja, Kampala, Kigali, and various towns in the Democratic Republic of Congo.

Kenyan chicken exports are valued at 27.3 million shillings annually making the country the 94^th largest exporter in the world. Most of the chick exports from Kenya are sourced from the poultry farms in Nakuru, Uasin Gishu, Kericho, Kisumu, Kiambu, and Kakamega counties.

The main destination for Kenya’s chicks is Rwanda, South Sudan, Somalia, Uganda, and Ethiopia.

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