In a Bamako suburb, the Moroccan-Malian Poultry Society, known as SOMMAVI, has built itself into Mali’s leading seller of broiler chicks since opening in 2018 by betting on fully local production rather than importing eggs for incubation, as many competitors do, Le360 Afrique reports. The facility has a capacity of 6,000 chicks per building and 18,000 across its chick-rearing units.
According to Ayoub Chermata, SOMMAVI’s administrative director, the company’s strength lies precisely in that local production model, in contrast to rivals who import eggs and incubate them locally to obtain day-old chicks. He said the company’s goal is to replicate Morocco’s chick-production experience in Mali. Sales representative Mamadou Oulalé said orders are placed in advance and chicks are delivered to clients as soon as they hatch, with a carton of chicks selling for 35,000 CFA francs, or 750 francs per chick; he described working at SOMMAVI as a rewarding experience, though he said the company’s main challenge remains its limited capacity to meet the full scope of client demand, a constraint he expects a new system currently being put in place to help ease.
Boyi Koné, in charge of chick care, has worked at the company for eight years, a role focused on ensuring the chicks’ wellbeing. He said he values working alongside his Moroccan colleagues and that, despite the language difference, the work proceeds smoothly, though he cited staff turnover as his main ongoing difficulty, requiring him to continually train new hires.
For client Seydou Cissé, who came to collect an order of 1,000 chicks, the appeal lies in consistency: he said he has sourced chicks from SOMMAVI for three years because of their quality, breed and health condition, adding that reproducing SOMMAVI’s chicks has delivered good results and a noticeable boost to his income, helped by strong demand and growing enthusiasm for the activity.
