URL goes big on stockfeed production

DIVERSIFIED Agro-processing firm, United Refineries Limited, is going big on the stock feed value chain, which has seen the company introducing a full three-phase chicken feed product under its new brand ‘NutriPro’ feed.

The Bulawayo-based factory has recently unleashed new products into the market such as fortified mealie-meal, packaged rice and stock feed, as it expands its domestic and export footprint in line with the value addition thrust.

United Refineries Limited

These add into the traditional range of products that include cooking oil, bathing soap, and bar soap.
In an interview, Mr Xolisani Moyo, who is in charge of the stock feeds department at URL, said instead of selling raw soya meal to other stock feed producers, the company has decided to add value within its plant and complement their product line.

“At the moment we are doing chicken concentrate, which is a mixture of vitamins and other elements mixed with soya meal, and then the farmer needs to crush maize and add to that,” he said.

“This product is suitable for small scale chicken producers. On the finish feed we have got three-phase chicken feed for broilers and layers, which is the starter, grower and the finisher.

“The concentrate is already in the market for about 10 months now since we launched it but the finish feed, we are putting it into the market this month and we already have stocks.”

Mr Moyo said production of stock feed by URL comes as a big value addition stance to the soya bean value chain where the company extracts oil from the soya bean and the remaining soya meal and soya cake is also value added to produce different types of stock feeds from poultry to livestock.

Mr Moyo said the market was responding well to their products and their plan was to introduce a full package of livestock feed from cattle, goat and pig feed.

He said the Nutripro unit is still at developmental phase and the company already established some relationships with distributors for the new product to be able to access customers.

URL’s main line of production is cooking oil and their major input is soya bean and cotton seed. The company also produces mealie-meal under the Unity brand, washing bar and image bathing soap. — chronicle.c.zw