Rabbit breeders form association
THE Zimbabwe Commercial Rabbit Breeders Association (Zicorba) has been formed as farmers seek to promote, develop and improve rabbit production in the country.
Rabbit industry is one of the fastest growing industries globally, with statistics showing that over four billion kilogrammes are consumed worldwide with some countries in Europe importing between US$20 million to US$33 million worth of rabbit meat annually.
In Zimbabwe, the sector is still growing and as such, farmers have come together and formed an association in a bid to exchange notes.
Information gathered from the Livestock and Meat Advisory Council (LMAC) shows that the association, which was formed last month, has established regional chapters in each province and each chapter has a functional executive.
Seventeen members sit on the national executive, including 10 chapter presidents.
Annamore Jamu is the interim president of the association, while Regis Nyamakanga is interim secretary-general.
“A team is currently working on capturing vital statistics about the rabbit industry in Zimbabwe,” LMAC said.
Zicorba is affiliated to the LMAC and recommendations have also been made for inclusion of rabbit breeding as small stock in the livestock growth plan that is being worked on by the Agriculture ministry.
The association has since launched its website, Facebook page and Twitter handle as it seeks to put Zimbabwean rabbit breeders on the global map and position rabbit meat as the preferred addition to people’s menus the world over.
“The association has embarked on a number of studies on rabbit production and marketing in the value chain to come up with evidence-based interventions that will scale up the contribution from the sector to the gross domestic product,” LMAC said.
The global rabbit meat market revenue amounted to US$6,4 billion in 2017, picking up by 12% against the previous year while meat consumption peaked in 2017, and is expected to retain its growth in the immediate term.
The amount of rabbit or hare meat consumed worldwide totalled 1,5 million tonnes in 2017, picking up by 2,9% against the previous year.
The total consumption volume increased an average annual rate of plus 2,8% from 2007 to 2017.
In the period under review, the country with the largest volume of rabbit meat consumption was China (925 000 tonnes), constituting approximately 62% of the total consumption.