Jenna Etheridge
South Africa’s ostrich industry hangs in the balance as farmers desperately wait for the EU to lift a ban on meat imports, with time and money running out.
About 741 farms were registered with the SA Ostrich Business Chamber (SAOBC), but this number shrank after an outbreak of the H5N2 bird flu virus in the Klein Karoo, in the Western Cape, in April last year.
“This number has reduced significantly in the past few months, with the EU import ban being a main driver, as it’s no longer profitable,” Piet Kleyn, the SAOBC’s interim chief executive, said yesterday.
The EU used to import 90 percent of South Africa’s ostrich meat, Kleyn said.
And the ban’s effects had been keenly felt by ostrich farms, mostly found in the Klein Karoo region of the southern Western Cape and Eastern Cape, which once slaughtered 250 000 birds a year for meat, leather and feathers.
More than 40 000 infected ostriches were culled following the outbreak, said Western Cape Agricultural Department spokesman Wouter Kriel.
He said the industry was losing about R108 million a month in export revenue and 20 000 jobs were at stake. The national government provided R50m in compensation to farmers who lost birds, but many had to close their farms or survive with a limited flock.
The last time a highly pathogenic virus form was detected was in October last year. A low pathogenic form, which caused mild disease in poultry, was detected in February but had already been slaughtered out, Kriel said.
However, the Agriculture Department would apply to lift the ban only once the industry had been restructured – in line with the recommendations of a EU delegation that visited the country in February.
It required that all farmers reregister their businesses and comply with specific regulations before any of them would be allowed to export meat.
They were told this was necessary to protect the country’s image as a reliable and responsible exporter, Kriel said.
The industry accepted the recommendations as sound advice, but time is running out. “As the Western Cape province, we are lobbying national government to rethink this approach and let’s rather allow a few guys to export now. Let’s find ways to get them to export at this stage, otherwise the industry will collapse,” he said.
“This process might take as a long as a year. We have a situation where all the ostrich farmers in the export business haven’t had income for a year. They are struggling to survive and have to invest more capital in order to export.”
The EU delegation recommended that bird and farm density be reduced, the movement of ostriches between farms and areas be limited and ostrich health regulations be tightened up.
Kleyn believed a solution could be found if farmers, businesses and the government worked together. Farmers were increasingly looking to the domestic market to sell ostrich meat, but there were few prospects as it was a niche market favoured mostly by the health-conscious.
“It’s ironic and frustrating. The meat that we are not allowed to export is perfectly safe and can be sold into the domestic market. It is very small though and wherever we could, we’ve been trying to campaign and lobby,” Klein said.
Ostrich is a pricey meat as it cannot be sold on the bone, unlike beef and mutton. A bird weighing 95kg yields only about 15kg to 17kg of prime cuts. Klein said a glimmer of hope for farmers was “a nice increase” in the price of leather and feathers.
The national department was unable to comment yesterday as it was briefing MPs on its budget vote. It was likely to comment in detail soon. – Sapa
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Article source: http://www.iol.co.za/business/business-news/export-ban-threatens-survival-of-ostrich-industry-1.1288868