The proposed poultry processing project by Zambia’s biggest poultry company, Hybrid Poultry Farm Ltd (HPFL), has received a major boost after obtaining a US$10 million (€8.7 million) senior debt loan from the UK government-founded agricultural investment company AgDevCo Ltd, paving the way for its implementation.
HPFL, a subsidiary of Mauritius-incorporated Africa Poultry Development Limited (APDL), which is owned by Seaboard Corporation of the USA, is investing in the chicken abattoir in Zambia’s Lusaka Province to increase the company’s export volumes of processed chicken, especially to neighbouring Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) and the European Union (EU).
The abattoir, to be expanded through Verino Agro Industries Ltd Zambia, a 99.99%-owned subsidiary of Hybrid Poultry Farm (HPF) Holdings Ltd, will have the capacity to slaughter, pluck, clean, cool and either fillet, cut into pieces or leave ‘whole’ before being packaged for both domestic and international markets.
HPFL says the financing by AgDevCo will enable it “to increase its processing capacity by building a modern abattoir which will create another 270 jobs and support the company’s growth.”
The company’s chicken processing is done by Verino, which sells the two brands Country Choice and Eureka Chickens with the main domestic market distribution channel being retailers such as supermarkets. HPFL has more than 1,200 employees and supplies over 2,000 farmers across the country with day-old chicks.
HPF Ltd’s chief executive officer Richard Keeley said the new state-of-the-art facility represents a significant milestone for the poultry company and “will be the largest of its kind in the region, allowing us to supply the Zambian market, where demand is growing rapidly, and export to Lubumbashi, the second-largest city in the DRC”1.
The new processing facility, Keeley added, has been designed “with sustainability at its core, and incorporates advanced energy-efficiency measures and wastewater treatment”.
Last year, HPF Ltd’s processing arm, Verino, received approval for the construction of the plant with an initial capacity to process 25,000 birds per day, a figure expected to rise to 90,000 birds annually over a 10-year period according to a previous report.
The report2 indicated Verino’s intention to invest approximately US$20 million (€17.4 million) in the state-of-the-art poultry processing facility in Zambia’s Chongwe District of Lusaka Province “to increase productivity, improve efficiency and also contribute positively to the poultry industry in Zambia”. “This forward-thinking expansion strategy reflects Verino Agro Industries Limited’s commitment to meeting the rising demand for poultry products and contributing to the agricultural landscape of Zambia” it said.
APDL, through HPFL, produces Ross breeding stock in Zambia under licence from Aviagen East Africa, with HPFL now ranked as the largest Zambian poultry producer supplying day-old chicks to selected businesses as well as other small-scale farmers who, in some instances, act as contract growers, according to previous reports.
Other APDL subsidiaries in East Africa include Kenchic Ltd in Kenya, Eureka Chickens Ltd in Zambia and Kenchic Uganda Ltd in Uganda. APDL’s shareholding in these subsidiaries is held through intermediate holding companies registered in Mauritius including Kenya Poultry Development Limited, Hybrid Poultry (Mauritius) Limited, Grassmere Holdings Limited and Ugabreed Limited.
Earlier, in March 2025, APDL, which has two breeding hubs for Aviagen’s Ross birds in Zambia and Tanzania, received a conditional approval from the Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa (COMESA) Competition Commission for a merger with HMH Kuku in Uganda. The Commission enforces provisions of trade regulations COMESA Member States, including Zambia, Kenya, Uganda and Tanzania and promotes competition within the Common Market through monitoring and investigating anti-competitive practices among all the 21 member countries. HMH Kuku is the parent company of the Yo Kuku! brand of chicken among other fresh & frozen chicken products in the Ugandan market3 4.
The financing by AgDevCo comes shortly after IFC lamented the prohibitive nature of access to finance for the development of large farming projects in Zambia, especially for the private sector.
“Less than 3% of Zambian farmers borrow money from a commercial bank to finance capital improvements for productivity and expansion and commercial credit to the sector has been declining, accounting for less than 10% of total credit in 2023 — with only 1% going to small and medium-sized agribusinesses” IFC said5.
Meanwhile, Zambia’s poultry meat exports were valued at €4.7 million in 2023 with the main export destinations being Democratic Republic of the Congo (€3.9 million) and Malawi (€820,000), which has been listed as the fastest-growing export market for Zambia’s poultry meat between 2022 and 2023 according to estimates by online data visualization and distribution platform, Observatory of Economic Complexity (OEC).
Main exports include frozen chicken cuts and organs, fresh/chilled poultry cuts and organs, frozen whole chickens, fresh/chilled whole poultry, and frozen turkey cuts and organs.
Meanwhile, Zambia imported poultry meat worth €22.35 million in 2023 primarily from the Netherlands (€7.9 million), Brazil (€4.16 million), Germany (€3.16 million), South Africa (€1.63 million), and Belgium (€1.6 million).
OEC identifies Germany, South Africa and Argentina as the fastest-growing origins for poultry meat imports in Zambia between 2022 and 20236.
Notes
1 https://www.agdevco.com/site/assets/files/2733/agdevco_press_release_-_hybrid_october_2025.pdf
3 https://comesacompetition.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/Website-Notice-MHM-Africa-Poultry-Final.pdf
5 https://www.ifc.org/content/dam/ifc/doc/2024/zambia-country-private-sector-diagnostic-en.pdf
6 https://oec.world/en/profile/bilateral-product/poultry-meat/reporter/zmb
