By: Nghiinomenwa-vali Hangala
For the two months of September and October 2025, Namibia imported 36,260 day-old chicks as inputs for its poultry sector.
This brings the year-to-date (January to October 2025) import of live birds to 376,161 for Namibia.
This is according to the monthly statistics provided by the Livestock and Livestock Products Board of Namibia (LLPBN) for October 2025.
In September 2025, the country imported 12,800 birds. October 2025 showed an 83% increase to 23,460 heads (consisting solely of day-old
chicks from South Africa), LLPBN revealed.
The import statistics highlight the domestic market’s inability to produce its own chicks at a large scale, especially the commercially viable breeds.
This has resulted in the emerging poultry producers struggling to scale up and meet local demand.
For years, chicken meat production at a large scale has only been limited to one big supplier, until last year when another producer entered the market.
According to LLPBN, a total of 16.1 million chickens were slaughtered for domestic consumption from January to October 2025. This is only between the two main chicken meat producers in the country.
On a monthly basis, the two main producers slaughtered a minimum of 1.4 million chickens. This, however, was still not adequate to meet local demand.
According to LLPBN’s observation, year-to-date the country imported 17.0 million kg of chicken meat to fill the gap and for product choices.
erastus@thevillager.com.na
