With the movement register, the South African Pork Producers Organisation (Savpo) aims to promote traceability, biosecurity and integrity in the industry.
Producers who are part of Savpo’s Pork 360 certification scheme must record movements from this year to comply with the scheme’s new on-farm standard requirements. The register will also be audited annually with Pork 360 audits.
Other producers on World of Pork can participate voluntarily.
“Savpo developed this tool to enhance its members’ ability to assure consumers, stakeholders and trade partners that South African pork products are safe to consume, produced ethically, and can be traced continuously throughout the value chain,” says Rika Verwey, Savpo’s head of business intelligence.
“It can also be used retrospectively for tracing after disease outbreaks and for disease control.”
The register allows for recording movements from the producer to abattoirs, from one producer to another, or from one production unit to another within the same enterprise.
“Basic” or “complete movements” can be recorded. The latter includes additional information that complies with the Meat Safety Act (Act 40 of 2000) and the Stock Theft Act (Act 57 of 1959).
Risk management tool
In the event of disease outbreaks, the register will also enable state veterinarians from the Department of Agriculture to see which producers delivered pigs to which abattoirs, thereby identifying and isolating the surrounding farms for risk management.
“If the farmer can, for example, prove where his pigs came from, state veterinarians can identify and control the disease faster,” says Verwey. “Farmers within a certain radius who may be affected can then be managed efficiently.”
Of the 412 pig producers registered with Savpo, 54 are Pork 360-accredited. Of the total 141 842 sows on World of Pork, 77 400 come from Pork 360 farms. The movement register is on the World of Pork platform, which can be used on a computer, but there are plans to develop a mobile application.
Access to information managed
All recorded information is treated as confidential. Each user can choose to share their movement information with either another producer or the abattoirs. Any user linked to the producer’s enterprise can access movement information sent from the enterprise. Any user linked to the destination enterprise or abattoirs can further access the movement information received by the enterprise.
