August 14, 2024

 

South Africa's poultry egg production to take 17 months for recovery, according to industry official

 

 

South Africans may experience occasional egg shortages on store shelves as the country's poultry industry continues to recover from last year's avian influenza outbreak.

 

The South African Poultry Association (Sapa) acknowledged that certain areas are experiencing stock issues due to the industry still in the process of rebuilding normal production levels. According to Dr. Abongile Balarane of Sapa, 30% of the poultry industry was devastated by the outbreak, which affected several provinces in 2023.

 

However, there have been no cases of avian flu reported this year.

 

"It will take us about 17 months to recover that lost production," Dr. Balarane said. "Normally, we have about 27 million chickens that give us eggs, so that has been down to about 19 million at this stage. We anticipate everything should be back to normal as early as next year, around May."

 

Last year's bird flu outbreak led to egg shortages and price hikes in South Africa, with some stores rationing egg purchases. Millions of chickens were culled, resulting in significant losses for farmers across various provinces. Despite these challenges, Balarane is optimistic that by May next year, poultry farmers will have fully recovered, and production will return to normal.

 

‘We also lost some breeding stock. So we have to start by producing fertile eggs which will be placed in incubators," Dr. Balarane added. "From those incubators, you get your day-old chick. From that day-old chick, you have to raise it until it gets to 18 weeks. Once it's at 18 weeks to 19 weeks, then it starts to give you eggs."

 

The good news is that by Christmas, egg supplies should have improved significantly.

 

"Closer to December this year, we'll start to see from that 30% (loss), maybe 20% recovered or 15% recovered. (As for early) January… another 5% may come to the system,' Balarane added.

 

To address the current shortages, the industry continues to import liquid and powdered eggs, allowing fresh eggs to be directed to retailers and consumers. Balarane noted that these imported products are primarily used in bakeries and for industrial purposes.

 

"Farmers decided not to take the existing eggs in the market and crack them to make powder and liquid," Dr. Balarane said. "We said we'll rather import that product, the liquid and powder, and all the remaining eggs in South Africa, we'll channel to… retailers where people can buy those fresh eggs. We did have some imports from Swaziland, not a huge quantity, just to close the gaps in some of the areas."

- Cape Town etc