Animal feed factory to resume production soon |01 August 2012

The Minister for Natural Resources and Industry Peter Sinon said during Question Time in the National Assembly yesterday that Seychellois businessman Neville Adeline has won the bid to resume operation of the factory.

He is expected to take over the factory today, August 1.
Mr Adeline will be responsible to do the necessary renovations before making the factory operational again.

Minister Sinon gave these details in answer to a question relating to the factory’s operation.
The question was submitted by elected member for English River Kevin Vidot but in whose absence was asked by elected member for Les Mamelles Emmanuel Fideria.

“Once the factory is fully operational, it is expected that this will bring much needed relief for local livestock producers,’’ Minister Sinon stated.

It is to be noted that the Animal Feed Factory was transferred to the Seychelles Farmers Marketing Cooperative (SFMC) in 2009 but unfortunately towards the end of last year the SFMC declared that due to various constraints it was unable to continue producing animal feed.

As per the transfer agreement which states that on condition that the SFMC is unable to effectively run the factory the government reserved the right to reclaim the facility, this has been the case.

Since then the government has put the factory on tender with the aim of finding a private company or individual who would resume effective operations of the facilities.

Minister Sinon noted that by the end of last year only two bids had qualified even after the given time for submissions had been extended.

Minister Sinon said among the two bidders one was a foreigner who was interested in using the factory for other activities and producing animal feed was not among his priorities.

The other bid was from Seychellois Neville Adeline who proposed to operate all three facilities of the factory namely animal feed production, abattoir and hatchery.

In view of the important role of the agriculture sector in providing local food security, the Seychelles Agricultural Agency (SAA) has meanwhile conducted two surveys on the livestock situation in the country. One was conducted by a consultant from the Food and Agriculture Agency (FAO) with the help of a local consultant while the other was by a South African company.

“Both surveys have shown that it costs more to produce animal feed locally,” Mr Sinon noted.

 But he added that at the same time freight and insurance costs have doubled since the surveys have been conducted and there have been many irregularities in the arrival of ships bringing in imported animal feed.

Another problem concerns storage facilities for animal feed which need to be at a certain temperature and this will cost the ministry a lot to put in place.

Minister Sinon noted that farmers had also been consulted on the issue and they stressed that animal feed produced locally are much better and give greater yields.

“Based on all these factors I believe that with the insecurity surrounding the arrival of imported animal feed, the need to have a factory for local production stands very strong if we want to have food security  and maintain local production at all times,” Minister Sinon said.