Zimbabwe will next week host its inaugural rabbit meat expo in Bulawayo as the demand for the small mammals’ meat is rising in the country and the region.
The event will be held on November 19, running under the theme; “The Big Deal”, at the Mystique Event Centre at Fourwinds in Bulawayo.
Midesha, a rabbit meat processing company, is hosting the event, and it is aimed at promoting the rearing and consumption of rabbit meat in Zimbabwe, and targeting the export market.
Midesha is a corporate member of the rabbit farmers lobby group, the Zimbabwe Commercial Rabbit Breeders Association (Zicorba).
The company’s chairperson, Siposethu Ncube-Moyo told the Daily News yesterday that the idea behind the expo was for rabbit producers to interact and also popularise the consumption of rabbit meat to consumers.
“We have seen a sharp rise in demand for rabbit meat mainly because of its numerous health benefits. The expo is meant to showcase the different ways of preparing rabbit meat, which is still relatively a new dish in the country,” Ncube-Moyo said.
“We themed it ‘The Big Deal’ because this event will bring families together to have fun while enjoying rabbit meat prepared by some of Bulawayo’s prominent chefs. Rabbit meat is indeed a big deal on the meat market in Zimbabwe. Our vision as Midesha is to make rabbit meat a household dish in Zimbabwe,” she said.
Since its formation in 2020, Zicorba has managed to strike strategic partnerships with other rabbit farmers associations in Botswana, Kenya, Mozambique, South Africa and Uganda.
The association has also assisted Raymeg Holdings, a local company to set-up Zimbabwe’s first export rabbit abattoir, which is one of the biggest in Africa.
The abattoir has a capacity to process 2.5 tonnes of rabbit meat per day. According to Zicobra, domestic rabbit meat can grow to between 15 and 25 tonnes sold per month over the next three to five years. Revenue from these sales is estimated to be US$2,5 million annually.
The expo is being held amid reports that Zimbabwe rabbit farmers are struggling to meet a 1.5 tonnes order from Botswana for meat owing to their failure to upscale their activities.
ZICORBA said up-scaling rabbit production was difficult as it remained a backyard practice rather than a large-scale farming activity.
However, it added that prospects for rabbit meat exports to the African market were abound, with countries such as Malawi, the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), Kenya and Angola being the main targets.
“Over the past two years, we have been assisting our farmers with pure rabbit breeds, training and technical support to ramp up our production to meet local demand as well as exports.
“We are very optimistic of our prospects in this regard as rabbit meat has become the latest craze in the Zimbabwe culinary sector with major supermarkets, hotels, restaurants and eateries having introduced the delicacy on their menus.”
The global rabbit meat market is estimated at about US$17 billion per year with China being the largest consumer at more than one million tonnes per year.
ZICORBA’s efforts to upscale local rabbit production are being bankrolled by Raymeg Holdings Limited, a local private investor, of which 6 000 breeders would be realised from an ongoing national rabbit pure breed roll-out programme.
