/ 13 June 2001

ZIM OSTRICHES GET IT IN THE NECK

WAR veterans occupying an Indonesian-owned ostrich farm in western Zimbabwe cut off water supplies there at the weekend, depriving the birds of drinking water, state news agency ZIANA reported on Sunday. A representative for Dollar Bubi, a multi-million dollar project rearing some 2_600 birds, told ZIANA that the continued occupation and disruption at the farm have severely curtailed production. The representative said egg production at one of the project’s four farms had plunged from 700 in the first half of the year to 50. The birds on the four farms normally lay some 56_000 eggs per year. Ostrich production is a significant foreign exchange earner in Zimbabwe, which is reeling from a critical shortage of foreign currency. – AFP