Farmers will start to see the benefits of the investments made in Onderstepoort Biological Products’ (OBP) plants from next year, the interim head of this state-owned enterprise promised on Thursday.
By Carien Kruger, senior journalist at African Farming and Landbouweekblad
The investments made by the state as a shareholder in OBP are aimed at achieving economies of scale, Dr Jacob Modumo, interim CEO, told delegates at the national Red Meat Producers Organisation (RPO) congress in Pretoria on Thursday.
OBP was a silver sponsor of the event and was able to address the congress like other sponsors.
Modumo admitted OBP has had problems supplying products and meeting market demand in recent years.
The capital investments made by the state in the meantime will mean they “will be able to produce more, in a short time. This will ultimately benefit the users, who are farmers, especially as part of their input costs.”
According to Modumo, OBP is engaged in a long campaign to ensure prices fall, because according to him, vaccines are becoming quite expensive.
“OBP has acquired and installed two new freeze dryers. I don’t think any competitor on the local market will even come close to what we will have in terms of capacity from 2026. We will have much more capacity than any competitor in Africa.
“The advantage of this, especially for the local market, is that farmers will benefit in terms of prices. Next year when we start with the first commercial batches of our new freeze dryers, don’t be surprised when you see most OBP prices at the point of sale are a little lower than those of most competitors.
“As a state-owned company, we have to play our part in trying to help farmers reduce their input costs so they can be profitable,” Modumo said.
Vaccines Also To Europe
OBP not only supplies vaccines to the local market but is also active in markets in North America and the Middle East and, more recently, in Europe, he said.
According to him, OBP has been supplying vaccines against lumpy skin disease to the European Union (EU) for the past two months, indicating the confidence the EU has in the effectiveness and quality of OBP’s products.
