Merlog Foods, one of the country’s largest importers of chicken and chilled products and supplier of local meat to retailers, has called on the government to grant Brazil a special arrangement to continue to export chicken as it did with the United States of America.
Georg Southey, the general manager of Merlog Foods, said the approach the department of agriculture took by approving a year-long arrangement with the United States of America, allowing for a more dynamic trade response to avian influenza or bird flu outbreaks and ensuring a continued supply of chicken imports into South Africa, was sensible.
Southey said that if there were a bird flu outbreak, the USA would stop exports from a specific state and resume exports when safe.
SA needs mechanically deboned meat
“The agreement allows local importers of essential, affordable protein needed by millions of South Africans to access safe chicken with ease and removes onerous paperwork and delays.
“Imported affordable proteins are essential for food security in South Africa, where up to 30% of households in some provinces face regular hunger according to a recent Stats SA release,” he said.
Southey said if such an agreement is the norm with trusted trading partners, then countries like Denmark and the Netherlands, which are free of bird flu, would have already been allowed to resume imports of affordable protein to South Africa, ensuring continued food security.
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“Currently, there is a ban on all chicken imports from Brazil despite the bird flu outbreak being in a single state and the fact that about 95% of MDM [mechanically deboned meat] locally comes from Brazil, sparking looming fears of a hunger crisis. MDM is widely used in lower-cost protein products required by millions of South Africans for food security, such as Vienna sausages and polony.
“For every week that there is a delay in resuming imports from Brazil, we lose another 100 million animal protein meals. I am pleased the department of agriculture has taken a proactive step by formally requesting Brazil to provide technical information about its avian influenza outbreak in order to open access to critically needed MDM from most parts of the country unaffected by the disease,” he explained.
Southey said he understood that the department was balancing their concerns around importing bird influenza while recognising the pressing need to ensure continued access to affordable protein and avoid a looming hunger crisis.
“I have good reason to believe a regionalisation approach will be enacted as early as next week once Brazil provides relevant information to South African authorities. Brazil is a major global poultry exporter and has responded to similar technical requests from other trade partners, including the European Union,” he said.
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