Hillside Rabbits at Harare Agricultural Show - 2014

When we started keeping rabbits it was a hobby and we never expected to make any money from it, let alone make a living from it. Over the years our approach to the hobby changed and we started to make money off the "project" (not hobby anymore). A big push towards this was the hyperinflation we experienced in Zimbabwe between the year 2003 and 2008 which needed us to be innovative to sustain ourselves. With the introduction of the US dollar in 2009 we had no other source of income at the time except the rabbits and it was then that our “project” started to evolve into our source of livelihood.

We have faced many challenges since we started keeping rabbits, but we have seen how these small livestock transformed our lifestyle and our perception of the world around us. We are now committed to growing this business (not a project anymore) to its full potential and hopefully take the ‘rabbit as an alternative protein source’ message to our fellow countrymen in the process. We continue to witness increasing interest in rabbits for meat, but also the number of breeder’s seems to continue to increase.

This is by all accounts very positive news, but as a business, we need to protect our share of that market. It is with this in mind that we are intending to start attending the Harare Agricultural Show from next year (2014) onwards to showcase our rabbits and hopefully interact with other stakeholders about the prospects of this growing sub-sector. From having attended the Harare Agricultural Show over the years, the rabbit section is always poorly displayed and in many ways is an after-thought by the show’s organisers and exhibiting institutions. We intend to change that next year with our specially designed & fabricated display cage.

We have included concept pictures with this post, the actual pictures will be made available towards the dates of the show. We are hoping this effort will generate interest in our product and show that we mean business. After the show we are hoping that our bankers, especially, start taking us a bit more seriously and that the market starts to take notice of us and our products. We have no illusion as to the impact our presence at the show will have. In other words, we are not expecting a flood of orders or discounts from suppliers soon after the show, but we are hopeful of getting increased orders from our current customers and a better reception from our bankers to start with.

As with any marketing and promotion, money has to be spent upfront before the rewards start to flow. This is why we have had to defer our attendance of the show to next year to give us time to save up for the stand and other associated expenses, which in all honesty we felt were too expensive. The fabrication of the cage will go ahead as scheduled and once complete we will explore the possibility of taking it to the UNWTO General Assembly in Victoria Falls in the hope of establishing new customers and showcasing our efforts to the country's and indeed the world’s policy makers.

All these are grand ideas by any measure, but we are committed to becoming Zimbabwe's largest rabbit breeding operation and this is the path we have chosen.

Special Display Cage - Concept Design Images

 

Side View

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3D Frame Structure



3D Frame Structure



3D Side View
 

3D Side View

 

3D Side View



3D Side View