Photo: Wikimedia Commons
“Brazil does not have a compartmentalisation agreement with South Africa, which would have allowed imports from unaffected regions, so no chicken imports are allowed from anywhere in that country,” Breitenbach told Farmer’s Weekly.
Cooked or heat-treated chicken would also not be allowed to be imported from Brazil due to the potential threat it posed to the local industry.
READ Over 350 000 chickens culled as state-owned farm faces financial crisis
Despite this, Breitenbach said that the ban would not affect South African chicken supplies or prices negatively.
“South African producers should be able to make up for the shortfall, as we are entering a time of lower demand,” he said.
He pointed out that South Africa produced more than 80% of the chicken consumed in the country.
“Brazil supplies most of our chicken imports, equating about 18% of local production, but only 4,5% of these imports comprise bone-in chicken portions, such as leg quarters, drumsticks and wings,” Breitenbach said.
Instead, more than 60% of the chicken South Africa imported from Brazil consisted of mechanically deboned meat used in the production of processed meat, such as polonies and sausages. Breitenbach said that a shortage of these products, which are categorised as ‘red meats’ and not chicken, could occur.
Avian influenza is currently disrupting trade in various countries, but Breitenbach said that South African outbreaks traditionally occur around spring, when wild birds migrate from Europe and other parts of the world to South Africa.
These birds, however, are routinely tested to identify potential outbreaks, with no birds testing positive for the disease so far this year.
South Africa did not experience an outbreak in 2024, but suffered huge losses in 2023, when over 9,6 million birds had to be culled.
The industry reportedly experienced direct losses of over R9,5 billion during the outbreak. Prices for poultry meat and eggs soared at the time, with egg prices specifically increasing by more than 30%.
Breitenbach said that SAPA has met with Minister John Steenhuisen of the Department of Agriculture to address biosecurity and monitoring protocols that were preventing farmers from vaccinating birds against avian influenza, as culling infected birds was not an effective control measure.
“Minister Steenhuisen has escalated our concerns in the department to enable vaccination. However, even if we start vaccinating today, it will not be soon enough to protect the birds against a possible outbreak in spring, as all the long-life birds, which are typically kept for about a year, would need to be vaccinated.”
