By: Mama A Touray
During the president’s industrial tour at Sambuya, the general manager of G Farm, Ebrima Sima, highlighted the challenges faced by the farm.
G Farm operates within the poultry industry value chain, with a current capacity of 100,000 layers, 20,000 broilers, and a hatchery capable of producing 400,000 day-old chicks every month.
General Manager Sima, while addressing the challenges encountered by the poultry farm, said, “The main challenge we face has to do with the market, as a local poultry industry we are so constrained because we have lots of import of poultry products into the country both broilers, chicken, and eggs. When they come they are always with competitive price so we can’t sell at those prices because they are coming from multi-billionaire companies that can easily supply them at cheaper rates, whereas our costs will be much higher.”
Sima explained further that raw material is also a challenge as they cannot get most of the raw materials within the country such as corn, soya, amongst other raw materials.
He also told the press that they have a machine that produces 30 tons of feed a day, adding that they also supply the community day-old chicks and feed whereas they can grow chickens for four to five weeks and supply it to small-scale farmers.
He said after the production of the eggs, they sell it to hotels, supermarkets, and the local market as well.
Highlighting the importance of the President’s visit, he said the president came before and that his coming today to see how far they have grown shows that poultry farming is possible in The Gambia to help youth stay in the country.
He said they expect the president to take this visit as an opportunity to create more employment for Gambians as the farm is owned and run by Gambians.
He continued, “We want him to know our challenges and use it as an opportunity to help us expand it beyond what we have, if we can grow it to this level without support, I believe with his support we can have it bigger and support the industry.”
