New pathway with poultry, piggery farms

05 July 2017, 12:00AM

M.P.M.C. - In a matter of weeks, the Ministry of Agriculture will open a poultry farm and piggery at its Livestock Division location at Vailima.

The two farms are part and parcel of a “new pathway developed by the Ministry to commercialize the pork and chicken industries,” says Minister of Agriculture Laaulialemalietoa Leuatea Polataivao.

And its part of the World Bank funded Samoa Agriculture Competitiveness Enhancement Project (SACEP). 

With the bulk of meat imported for local consumption, the Minister says that there is a huge opportunity for local farmers to enter the market as commercial chicken and pork sellers.

“Every month, we import 40 containers of chicken.”

“The new pathway developed by the Ministry is to reduce our reliance on imported meat.”

“Having said that it would be amiss I fail to publicly acknowledge the role played by the Tanumapua Poultry Farm owned by Taimalie Charlie Westerlund.”

“Over the years, Taimalie and his people have staked a foothold in the local egg production and are now meeting close to 70% of local demand.”

“And that is fantastic for Samoa, not only in terms of employment for our people but keeping the money in our economy.”

He added that the primary goal of the Ministry is to support livestock producers to improve their productivity and take greater advantage of market opportunities. “We have three state of the art incubators at Vailima that can hatch top quality layers for egg production and broilers intended to stock our hatchery for meat consumption and exports,” says Laaulialemalietoa.

Added Chief Livestock Officer and Assistant Chief Executive Aiolupotea Tony Aiolupo;

“We are nursing close to 200 one day old broilers imported from New Zealand which we plan to use in our breeding trials down the road.”

“Hatching the perfect layers and broilers is a timely process but as the Minister has indicated, this is a new pathway that will benefit not only our livestock farmers but generate new employment opportunities to stimulate our economy.”

“Rome was not build in a day,” added Laaulialemalietoa.

05 July 2017, 12:00AM
Samoa Observer

Upgrade to Premium

Subscribe to
Samoa Observer Online

Enjoy unlimited access to all our articles on any device + free trial to e-Edition. You can cancel anytime.

>