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Archive - Archive 2004 - July 2013

New animal feed plant set to revive farming |05 April 2013

New animal feed plant set to revive farming

Mr Roucou (left) guiding Minister Sinon and his principal secretary Michel Nalletamby around the factory

This amount is about half of the country’s current 600-tonne need “so the factory is showing light at the end of a dark tunnel in which farmers have suffered shortage of animal feed locally and faced expensive imports,” said Natural Resources and Industry Minister Peter Sinon, who officially opened the Rouc’s Animal Feeds.

Its owner Cyril Roucou told Nation he is a farmer and when he was hit by the animal feed shortage when the main factory closed, he considered opening one which he said will supply not only his animals with the feed they need, but others also.

He told Nation demand previously stood at 1,400 tonnes before the shortage forced farmers to quit animal rearing.
Mr Sinon commended the farmers who have persevered and continued despite the difficulties, and said he views the factory as yet another private sector initiative that will contribute greatly to reviving one of our key industries.

Mr Roucou said he is getting raw material from Holland through a South African based supplier, while some of the ingredients are coming from Pakistan and India, with the most expensive element – fish meal – coming from the Indian Ocean Tuna factory.

He said no antibiotics are being added to the feed and neither are growth enhancing hormones, which are known to cause ill health to humans who eat products from animal fed on such.
He therefore stressed the advantages of buying locally produced animal products, whose rearing Mr Sinon said can be monitored.

The feed is being tested by the Seychelles Bureau of Standards, and observers said unlike foods produced far away, we can always know if something adverse is among locally produced foods.

Others said if we compare for example chicken produced locally with imported ones and consider the unit price by weight, the imports are usually more expensive.

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