Things start going right for ostrich exporters

RAY SMUTS THE ‘must-haves’ for well-heeled Texas ranchers could now extend beyond hand-crafted boots and flamboyant Stetsons to include supple South African ostrich livery for the interiors of their upmarket trucks. An agreement for the Klein Karoo Group to supply Toyota South Africa with hides for export bakkies comes as good news for ostrich farmers following the outbreak of avian (bird) flu in the Eastern Cape earlier this year, which led to the culling of more than 20 000 birds and an EU ban on all imports since extended to March 2005. The luxury Toyota bakkies - not your everyday runabouts - are exported to the United States, but the target market is apparently the State of Texas. This is however not the only encouraging news to come out of Oudtshoorn, focal point of the country’s ostrich industry. The Klein Karoo Group has recorded a net profit of R7 million this past year, a positive turnabout of R30million after a loss of R24million the previous year.