So the Mining Sector is one of the richest field to venture into especially gold mining. It is unfortunately one of the riskiest fields where many new investors lose money. This is the sector with the most thieves so tread with care. Do not rush to invest simply because you have seen someone making it or have heard of rich pickings by your friends who are doing mining. Exercise caution, obtain all the relevant information, verify information before you part with a penny.

ZBIN Initiative

We would like to reduce the risk of making losses in the sector by provision of quality information. Within the group we have a number of Mining Consultants who are willing to provide information to potential investors. Consultants who are willing to provide information on getting relevant permits, pegging, access to credit, mining equipment etc These consultants are also able to provide information on trends in the mining sector, opportunities and risks.

The consultants will be willing to provide this information for a fee. So if you would like to find basic information they should be able to provide this at a nominal fee. Having information will help save your time and other resources.

Inviting Mining Consultants

The ZBIN Community is therefore inviting Mining Consultants to register by leaving their details below. We will send you a questionnaire which you have to fill. We will make follow ups with you so that we can certify you as a Mining Consultant who can provide services to our community.

We are looking forward to certifying at least 10 Mining Consultants from the ZBIN Community. Our members will be asked to continuously provide feedback on the performance of the consultants. Members would be asked to rate the consultants in terms of fees, quality of information provided and customer service.

So if you are a consultant we are asking you to provide the following details:

Name:

Email Address

Contact Phone

Location

Thank you

We have provided you with costing information of raising broiler chickens and now we look at marketing your chickens. This not an easy area as most people struggle with marketing infact our research shows that raising chickens is actually easier than marketing them.

The traditional markets used by most Zimbabweans include selling to friends, workmates, neighbours and relatives. Some do take their chickens to Mbare Musika especially road runners. We have also witnessed the proliferation of bird cages with chickens for sale along major roads in the city or at shopping centres.

Now the above selling direct selling methods bring with them a lot of problems and the chief one is customers who take chickens on credit and fail to pay! This is the number one problem with the small scale poultry industry sector-availability of a reliable market.

Some have asked us about selling to big supermarkets such as OK, TM and SPAR but the major hurdle is that you need to have a constant supply of birds and the slaughter facilities have to meet high standards to be certified by their inspectors. The certification process may eat into profits of small scale farmers and sometimes they may fail to have a constant supply of chickens.

So markets-markets-markets is a common problem affecting everyone who is in this field. You can add the fact that barriers to entry are low such that it is a flooded industry and this drives down the profitability of the sector.

So what is ZBIN doing to solve the marketing problem?

We are of the view that our farmers should form one company where they supply chickens to. The company will then be able to concentrate on selling chickens in bulk to hotel chains, supermarkets and even export. Our members should coordinate their projects such that they can supply chickens on a regular basis. Farmers should therefore enjoy economies of scale in terms of marketing of their chickens. One central place, one voice for the sale of chickens from small scale farmers.

More discussions on this initiative will be done at our ZBIN Group meeting that would be held in February next month. If you are a small scale poultry farmer we encourage you to attend our meeting and contribute to the poultry marketing challenge.