South Africa’s devastating outbreak of bird flu is finally under control according to the department of agriculture, rural development and land reform. But government is now considering increasing imports of eggs to ensure no shortage.
Department of agriculture, rural development and land reform spokesperson Reggie Ngcobo said consumers do not have to panic buy as stock levels are being steadily replenished.
Poultry imports increased
Ngcobo said the department had a few open import permits for eggs and poultry products from a few countries.
According to him, the department is looking ahead to ensure that there are no shortages ahead of the festive season. They have imported 9 million fertilised eggs, 37 802 tons of day-old chicks, 62 metric tons of egg products, and 30 986 metric tons of poultry meat.
“We have increased fertilised eggs from 1.9 million to 9 million in less than one month. These eggs will be chickens in less four months,” he said.
Ngcobo explained that the country would continue to import more eggs should the situation regarding the bird flu outbreak not improve.
“We are happy that the HPAI outbreak is under control and that 70% of farms that were not infected continue to produce eggs and chickens.
“Since the egg production cycle is not too long, we expect the situation to normalise early next year,” he said.
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Safety is top of mind
Ngcobo said countries like Brazil, United States of America, Argentina and others have been exporting eggs to South Africa for quite some time and the department was currently processing import permit applications from a few more countries.
“As a department, we do not dictate which countries should make business sense for South African retailers to import eggs from but only ensure that biosecurity risk assessments are conducted when importers apply for import permits.
“It does not matter for us which country importers apply to import eggs from as long as we are satisfied with biosecurity matters in exporting countries, irrespective of whether that country is Kenya or United States of America,” he said.
Ngcobo said biosecurity issues were non-negotiable as that is being done so to prevent introduction of diseases to our shores.
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