Bird flu will cost poultry exporters R100m

Farmers to be compensated RAY SMUTS A GOVERNMENT order to slaughter 30 000 ostriches - one tenth of the country’s entire population - and a voluntary ban on all poultry exports in a bid to stem the outbreak of avian influenza (bird flu) will cost the industry more than R100 million. More than 2 000 ostriches have died recently from the disease which is thus far confined to only two farms in the Eastern Cape’s Somerset East area. These farms are under a 60-day quarantine while a further 15 farms in a 30km radius have been placed under a 30-day quarantine. The government’s slaughter decree, which it said was made as a “gesture of goodwill”, coincided with Singapore’s ban on all poultry products and birds from this country, the second country to adopt the measure after Hong Kong. Singapore imports 3 000 tons of frozen ostrich meat from South Africa a year. The Department of Agriculture added the export ban was in order for South Africa to maintain credibility with its international partners and would remain in force until the experts were satisfied the outbreak had been satisfactorily dealt with. An Eastern Cape agricultural official has made it clear farmers will be compensated for their losses. Farmers whose ostriches are culled will have to wait three months before they are able to resume operations. South Africa has around 600 ostrich farms of which 70% are in the Western Cape and 20% in the Eastern Cape. The export market is worth R1,2 billion, 90% of it it to Europe and dominated by tanned hides (65% of the total), 30% meat and 5% feathers. The SA ban applies to all three products. This is the second time in 11 years that the ostrich industry has been hit by bird flu on top of a bout of Congo fever a few years back.