Development of the animal feed to poultry value chain across Botswana, South Africa, and Zimbabwe

The animal feed to poultry value chain in the southern African region has seen rapid demand growth owing to increases in urbanization. This growth has been accompanied by the increase in co-ordinated investments by large, predominantly South African, firms across the region. We examine the developments in the value chain across countries in southern Africa, paying attention to production and trade in poultry meat and its main inputs. We also consider the regional nature of the animal feed to poultry value chain. We argue that large firms play a lead role in the development of the value chain in southern Africa given their ability to make co-ordinated investments at different levels and to realize the competitive potential from the regional agricultural production of the main feed crops.