Farai Dziva|Zimbabwe is likely to face a critical shortage of meat products, it has emerged.

This comes as farmers cry foul over the recent price hike of maize and soya beans and the removal of government subsidies.

Livestock and Meat Advisory Council (LMAC) economist Reneth Mano told a daily newspaper on Wednesday that the livestock industry was at risk.

“By just changing, overnight, the grain marketing policies without consultations to the commercial livestock sector, which has been a major partner of government and GMB (Grain Marketing Board), the farmer has been introduced to a big shock.

Now, there is a risk to the billion dollar industry
And the main threat really is if you are a poultry breeder and you are producing day-olds and you cannot access maize at affordable prices, you may have to cut production.

If you are into piggery, with imported breeding stock, like a lot of our medium and large-scale producers, when you cannot feed pigs you may have to scale down or kill some of them.

“The country has an annual demand of 91 million birds, 266 000 slaughter cows and 140 000 pigs,”said Mano.