KARIEGA – The Imvaba Cooperative Fund has allocated funding to the Milani Macethe Poultry Production Primary Cooperative, a family-owned poultry producer in Kariega.
The cooperative said the funding comprises R264,984 for infrastructure rehabilitation and R114,362.83 for processing and cold-chain equipment.
Manager Thobeka Menze won the Department of Agriculture’s Women Entrepreneurship Award for Best Subsistence Producer in 2024, followed by the department’s Best Poultry Producer Award in the Sarah Baartman District Municipality in 2026. The family began producing broilers on a small scale in 2002, alongside cattle and goat farming.
Starting with 200 day-old chicks housed in a temporary brooder structure, the operation expanded over time. The cooperative now produces 1,500 broilers per production cycle.
ECDC Assistant Manager for Financial Incentives and Business Support, Fikile Mzinyati, said the funding was used to reconstruct poultry houses with capacity for 6,000 broilers, and to purchase 1,500 day-old chicks, poultry feed and processing equipment, including a poultry plucker, chest freezers, a digital scale and a packaging machine.
Established in 2002, the cooperative is made up of five family members and operates on a 12-hectare farm in Rocklands Valley, Kariega.
It supplies live and processed chickens to residents and local traders, and has created two permanent administrative jobs for women from the surrounding community.
Menze said the cooperative is rebuilding after floods in 2022/23.
Another Rocklands-based cooperative, Langbooi Sthathu Agricultural Primary Cooperative, received R263,332.75 from the Imvaba Cooperative Fund in April 2026. The funding was used to renovate broiler housing facilities, acquire processing machinery and equipment, and purchase day-old chicks and poultry feed.
The family-owned enterprise traces its origins to 2003 and is managed by five members of the Langbooi family: chairperson Ntombizanele Langbooi, deputy chairperson Ester Nobhelu Langbooi, secretary Nomthandazo Langbooi, treasurer Sinovuyo Langbooi, and organiser Letta Langbooi Runeli.
The cooperative employs eight people, including the members. It produces approximately 1,440 broilers every four weeks, with facilities accommodating 1,500 birds per production cycle. Its poultry products are sold in 2 kg and 5 kg packs to local consumers and businesses, including the Yonayethu and Endaweni Tshisanyama in Kariega.
Mzinyati says both cooperatives have received support through government agricultural development initiatives and follow biosecurity measures intended to maintain healthy flocks.
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