THE FUSE

Southern Africa’s poultry industry is being urged to move beyond a model that largely separates small survivalist producers from large integrated companies and deliberately develop a stronger middle tier of businesses. Ishmael Sunga, CEO of the Southern African Confederation of Agricultural Unions, argues that the sector needs a new generation of professionalised, medium-scale enterprises capable of supplying formal markets, creating jobs and expanding ownership across the poultry value chain. The proposal places young women and men at the centre of efforts to develop this emerging enterprise class. It also shifts attention from simply increasing the number of poultry producers to building businesses that can operate sustainably and compete commercially. For the region’s poultry sector, the development of this so-called missing middle could become an important part of efforts to broaden participation in agricultural value chains.