A conversation with Bruce Dooyema, Chairman of the International Egg Foundation
In Mozambique, egg consumption sits at under 10 eggs per person, per year -among the lowest rates in the world. Behind that number is a bigger story: limited access to training, infrastructure, and reliable technology for the farmers who could change it.
The International Egg Foundation (IEF) has spent years working to close that gap. One of its flagship efforts is the Ebenezer Agricultural Training Centre in Mozambique, where young people learn to farm, run a business, and build a future - and where HATO's lighting systems have quietly become part of how that future gets built.
We spoke with Bruce Dooyema, Chairman of the IEF, about the project, the realities of working in the field, and why lighting turned out to matter more than anyone expected
Ebenezer's model gives young people, aged 18 to 24, two years of hands-on training in farming and business, sending them out with the skills to build something of their own. The curriculum covers:
That last point matters most, according to Bruce. Students start with basic, low-cost setups - floor birds and nest boxes - and gradually work toward cages and larger-scale production, so growth feels achievable rather than abstract.
Bruce is candid about the learning curve the IEF team went through early on. The team arrived with what he calls a "Western mindset," expecting solutions that work in Europe or the US to translate directly. They didn't.
With limited access to materials, infrastructure, and reliable electricity, every piece of technology brought into the project needs to meet a few non-negotiable criteria:
"There's no hardware store around the corner," Bruce says. "So the goal is to take advanced technology and make it usable in a simple way, without losing performance."
Lighting is easy to overlook in poultry production - until you see what changes when it's done right. Since installing HATO's system in Ebenezer's newest poultry house, the team has seen results they hadn't achieved before:
Electricity in rural Mozambique isn't something you can count on - outages can last hours or days.
To get around this, the project pairs HATO's lighting system with solar power, so the birds get consistent light and a stable environment regardless of what the grid is doing that day.
Ebenezer sits inside a larger IEF effort to fight malnutrition through eggs. Across projects in Honduras and South Africa, initiatives like "1000 Days of Life" get eggs to pregnant women and young children during the most critical window of development.
Bruce recalls one family in Honduras where a mother's first two children were born underweight; her third, born after the family joined the egg program, was noticeably healthier. It's a small example of what he sees as the program's real value.
Every year, Ebenezer sends a new group of graduates out with the skills to start their own farms - some as egg producers, strengthening local supply chain by chain. With consumption still under 10 eggs per person per year, Bruce sees the potential as enormous.
HATO is proud to support the International Egg Foundation's work at the Ebenezer Agricultural Training Centre. Contact us to learn how HATO's lighting and solar solutions can support poultry projects in demanding environments.