Controversy looms after seizure of 62,000 chicks

Dar es Salaam. The confiscation of chicks that were about to be imported into the country has unveiled issues of accountability and non-compliance with laws among government officials and players in the poultry industry.

The chicks that were confiscated at the Julius Nyerere International Airport (JNIA) on December 22, 2022, belonged to Phoenix Farms Limited, based in Mkuranga District, Coast Region.

The chicks, packaged in 697 crates worth Sh200.262 million, were impounded during an inspection as they were being imported into the country from Belgium.

The Citizen has established that Phoenix Farms Limited had submitted an application letter to the Permanent Secretary in the ministry of Livestock and Fisheries requesting for a permit to import chicks from the European country.

It has also been established that the importers had been issued a veterinary certificate by Belgian authorities.

Some players in the industry have accused the ministry of failing to give import licences and take additional steps to safeguard domestic investors.

“Authorities have unfairly dealt with the matter. They were supposed to issue the permit provided the country lacks the breeding capacity to meet his demands,” said a stakeholder on condition of anonymity.

“The chicks could have been taken to the company’s farm and quarantined there. If they were found to be in good health, the investor could have been penalised and the chicks returned to him,”  added the source.

Alternatively, the chicks could have been distributed to groups of livestock keepers throughout the country, where they could have played a significant role in addressing the challenge of malnutrition, according to the source.

When contacted, a senior Phoenix Farms Limited official, Mr Irfan Mitha declined to comment on the validity of the two above-mentioned documents.

“I’m busy today; call me tomorrow, and I will be in a position to comment,” he told this paper on Wednesday, Thursday and Friday (yesterday).

The Director of Veterinary Services (DVS) in the Ministry of Livestock and Fisheries, Prof Hezron Nonga said the import permit application dated December 1, 2022, didn’t reach his office or the ministry.

He said that the ministry was looking into the validity of the veterinary certificate that is claimed to have been issued by Belgian authorities.

“We got to see the application letter for import permits, shortly after the chicks had been impounded at the JNIA. Likewise, the veterinary certificate written by the Belgian Federal Agency for the Safety of the Food Chain (FACFAS),” he said.

“We have launched an investigation to establish its validity because global procedures requiring veterinary certificates to be issued after import permits have been supplied by recipient countries,” he added.

Prof Nonga said the outcome of the investigation will inform them whether exporting countries should be sued before global bodies including the World Trade Organisation (WTO) and the World Organisation for Animal Health (WOAH).

He said the convicted importers (Phoenix Farms Limited) could face a Sh5 million fine, five years imprisonment, or both for forgery of government documents.

Application for import permit

Prof Nonga hinted that the importer called on December 12, 2022, rather than submitting an application letter at the office he (Prof Nonga) was in charge of.

“He asked whether he could be allowed to import 100,000 layer chicks from Belgium. We categorically told him that the import permit would not be granted in order to prevent the spread of severe bird flu,” he said.

“Later on, he sent a text message requesting to import 62,000 chicks. Our response remained the same even after visiting the veterinary offices in Dar es Salaam. However, I promised to assist him in getting the chicks from domestic sources,” added Prof Nonga.

According to him, several local companies were consulted and promised to provide different quantities of a day old chicks in a week’s period.

He named the companies and the respective quantities of chicks in brackets as Silverlands Tanzania (30,000); Interchick (30,000); a Bagamoyo based Chinese firm (25,000) and another company based in Arusha (30,000).

“In total Phoenix Farms Company was promised to get more chicks than it needed. The company was served with contacts of key persons in the respective companies,” he said.

“However, reports that reached my office indicated that Phoenix Farms Company rejected the locally-hatched chicks over low quality concerns and instead maintained its desire to import the chicks from Europe,” added Prof Nonga.

Quarantine

Prof Nonga said that though the idea to quarantine the chicks, penalise the owner or distribute the chicks to different poultry farmer groups could hold water, the government decided to take stern measures to discourage importers’ negligence.

“He imported the chicks despite being advised otherwise. He decided to express his negligence against the laws governing the sector, which is not acceptable. Inspectors at the JNIA had nothing to do but prevent entry,” said the DVS.

The status of seized chicks

Providing an update on the chicks, Prof Nonga said all 62,730 have died after being abandoned at the airport.

“The importer has another case to answer before the Tanzania Revenue Authority (TRA) as the poultry’s disposal plans are underway,” he said.

More sector challenges revealed

Poultry stakeholders have outlined other challenges impeding the sector’s prosperity, such as excessive chick importation, a lack of coordination among the public and private sector, the absence of data, and the nonexistence of silos for the storage of cereals for the manufacture of animal feed.

Others are the law’s failure to recognise the need for storage of cereals for animals’ consumption, market deterioration, and the denial of registration to the Poultry Association of Tanzania (PAT) which is the sub-sector umbrella body.

The Tanzania Broiler Farmers Association’s (Tabrofa) vice chairman, Mr Alloyce Makoye, said imports have forced breeders to reduce production, noting that farmers have been forced to close businesses.

However, the Tanzania Layer Farmers Association (Talfa) chairman, Mr Godfrey Kadindima, said the lack of coordination between the public and private sector adversely affected the subsector.

“The absence of reliable data is another challenge because players are completely unaware of the ratio between chicks demand and supply in the country,” he said.

“Neither the public, nor the private sector has such data. Also, failure to register PAT because of petty politics is another blow to the subsector,” he added.

Furthermore, he stated that the lack of grain reserves had a significant impact on the country as a result of record high prices for animal feed.

“The government should collaborate with the private sector in establishing better preservation methods for grains for livestock consumption,” he said, insisting that stored cereals should benefit all livestock.

The secretary of the Tanzania Animal Feeds Manufacturers Association (Tafma), Mr Sufian Kyarua, backed up Mr Kadindima by stating that cereal storage for animal use is now the most crucial factor due to the increased food competition between humans and animals.

“The worsening condition will force us to seek the government’s permission for the importation of cereals for the manufacture of livestock feeds. However, HS codes should be separated in order to differentiate white from yellow maize.

This will provide justification when importing maize for animal feed manufacture,” he said.

Mr Kyarua said the National Food Reserve Agency (NFRA) was established to preserve grains for human consumption, noting that the agency doesn’t have the responsibility to conserve cereals for livestock consumption.

“NFRA can only take on this responsibility after the amendment of the law that established the agency in order to accommodate the new demand to preserve cereals for manufacture of animal feeds,” he said.

According to him, the demand for grains for animal feed manufacturing has increased to 500,000 tonnes, establishing that the new figures cannot be underestimated.