The South Africa Poultry Association (Sapa) has welcomed the opening up of imports to fertile eggs for hatcheries including products such as powder and liquid eggs.
This comes after Minister of Agriculture Thoko Didiza announced that the government would allow imports of poultry products to ensure sufficient stock for the festive season.
Department of Agriculture, Land Reform, and Rural Development (DALRRD) spokesperson Reggie Ngcobo said the department is working with all stakeholders in the poultry industry and “doing everything possible to contain the Highly Pathogenic Avian Influenza (HPAI) which is plaguing not only South Africa but other parts of the world.
“Since the 1st of September, the department has granted 115 permits for fertiliser eggs, 48 permits for egg powder, 2 406 permits for poultry meat and 24 permits for table eggs.
“A permit might be for a shipping container up to 10 000 tonnes,” Ngcobo said.
Sapa’s Egg Organisation general manager Abongile Balarane said these are “good steps” to assist the industry during the crisis.
“Under normal circumstances, the South African Egg Industry has about 27 million hens that provide us with eggs daily.
“Unfortunately, about six million of those layer hens have been culled with another three million suspected to be affected,” Balarane said.
“As an industry, we have fully agreed to import a bulk of powder and liquid eggs which are mainly used for industrial purposes, and then channel all the available fresh table eggs to the consumers.
“This will assist us while we are rebuilding the flock size and waiting for vaccines to be allowed in South Africa.”
He said most SADC countries like Zimbabwe, Namibia, Angola, and Malawi which are bird-flu free can assist the industry in providing needed supplies.
“In 2017 during the previous avian influenza, we had poor, rotten eggs dumped on South Africa from South America.
Balarane said it resulted in reputational damage for the industry because consumers weren’t happy with poultry products.
He said this led to the revision of the current regulation R.345, which sets out clear rules for anyone wishing to import shell eggs and products into South Africa.
“The 40 days from the day of lay is to protect the consumer from poor quality eggs, refrigerated as low as +1 to +4 degrees celsius, from sea exporting countries.”
To immediately expose eggs to ambient South African temperatures increases the decline in quality, Balarane said.
South African eggs may not be sold after 40 days from the date of lay, the rule applies to all unpasteurised table eggs sold in South Africa.
Balarane said the call from frozen food importer/exporter, Hume International, for immediate legislative intervention by uplifting the 40-day rule under regulation R.345, and assurance for importers, is not supported by the poultry industry.
“Everyone must abide by the laws of the country.
“We call on DALRRD for immediate assistance to fast-track our discussions to open SADC countries that do not avian influenza at the moment.”
The general non-availability of eggs on South African shop shelves has triggered a sharp spike in the price of eggs where product is still available.
Freight News saw earlier this week at a retailer in Randburg, a tray of “30 large Farmhouse eggs” advertised for R136.99.
Prior to the current bird flu outbreak, such a tray would be priced between R90 and R100.
Some consumers say that although supply shortage has been touted as the reason for eggs becoming so expensive, sharp increases should be seen for what it is – price gouging.
