Harare — OSTRICH production, which is a significant contributor to the country's foreign exchange earnings, has suffered a major decline since the year 2000 owing to high input costs, The Financial Gazette can reveal.

Conservative estimates indicate that the sub-sector, which at its peak raked in upwards of US$3 million annually, has suffered a 75 percent slump since 2000, when the chaotic land reform started.

Cedric Wilde, the chairman of the Ostrich Producers' Association of Zimbabwe (OPAZ), also attributed the drastic decline to a corresponding fall in the number of players in the industry from 60 to about 15.

"Traditionally, returns from meat sales covered the costs of feeding the birds, leaving revenue from the sale of skins as profit, but due to the enormous costs of raw materials, the end result is that not only are the sales of meat exhausted, but approximately 10 percent of the revenue from the skin sales goes into input costs as well," Wilde said.

The OPAZ boss said ostrich farmers were desperate to salvage what is now left of this once booming industry.

He added that stockfeeds, which accounted for about 80 percent of the inputs in the production cycle, had shot up beyond the reach of many farmers.