23 October 2023
By: Carien Kruger
The chicken industry is taking as many steps as possible to counter the impact of the highly contagious H7N6 avian influenza strain in northern regions and ensure there is enough chicken meat on supermarket shelves for Christmas.
According to Izaak Breitenbach, CEO of the South African Poultry Association (Sapa), more than 53 million fertilised chicken eggs have already been imported, with the first batch arriving on October 10 and additional orders to follow.
He told parliament’s portfolio committee for agriculture, land reform and rural development on Friday that next month, due to a shortage of day-old chicks, 18,1% fewer broiler chickens can be slaughtered. However, in December it is estimated to be a marginal 0,3% less.
The South African H7N6 strain has hit the chicken farming industry hard, with more than 2,5 million broilers – 30% of the national flock – having to be culled. In Gauteng, where the strain wreaked havoc, 95% of all breeding stock for broilers was culled. This has caused shortages of day-old chicks, leading to fewer chickens available for slaughter.
Breitenbach said the other steps and factors that will prevent shortages by Christmas include:
- Extending the lifespan of unaffected flocks in the poultry industry by 2-3 weeks so there is additional production of hatching eggs;
- Hatching second-grade eggs, which have a lower hatchability rate than first-grade eggs;
- Transferring stock of frozen chicken meat from this year’s winter, when the demand for chicken meat usually decreases, to help alleviate shortages during the festive season;
- The expected monthly import volume for the next three months looks stable and is increasing, which will ease shortages; and
- The recent ban on the import of South African poultry products by Botswana, Namibia and Lesotho will boost local stock.
‘Discount is unnecessary’
Ebrahim Patel, Minister of Trade, Industry & Competition, recently instructed the International Trade Administration Commission (ITAC) to quickly investigate the creation of a discount on dumping and ordinary tariffs (most favoured nation tariffs) on imported chicken meat to allow more imports.
Breitenbach said this is unnecessary, given all the steps the industry is taking, especially the import of hatching eggs.
“(Importation) comes at a significant additional cost to the industry, which is already in financial distress due to the energy crisis, water challenges and other issues,” he said.
Demand for chicken usually peaks in December, after which it decreases. Sapa expects demand and supply to balance out then. “If a discount is decided upon, the products will only arrive in the country after the shortage in November and December,” said Breitenbach.
Egg industry to recover slowly
Dr Abongile Balarane, CEO of Sapa’s egg organisation, told the committee the recovery in the egg industry will take longer, an expected 17 months. The laying flock is usually around 27 million, but due to avian influenza it is expected to shrink to 22,7 million this year and 17 million next year.
The egg industry is also importing fertilised hatching eggs to counter the shortage of hens, and the following steps are expected to provide solutions:
- Faster approval of vaccines against avian influenza;
- Expediting the import of liquid and powder eggs, which can be used in the manufacturing and baking sectors, making more whole eggs available to consumers; and
- Importing eggs from Namibia.
Balarane said as a consumer, he would rather buy a Namibian egg than one from Brazil, because the latter claims to have had no avian influenza outbreaks in its commercial flocks but has had many outbreaks among wild birds. This raises questions, he said.
