FMD crisis crushing livelihoods of SA communal farmers, says Meat Naturally Africa

Foot-and-mouth disease (FMD) is devastating the livelihoods of communal farmers throughout South Africa, says Meat Naturally Africa (MN), a social enterprise network that runs business partnerships with these farmers.

On 15 April, Agriculture Minister John Steenhuisen said early data indicates that the current mass FMD vaccination strategy is "yielding positive results" and is working to protect the national herd.

However, while communal farmers understand that the national response takes time, they live on small margins and cannot afford delays, says Sarah Frazee, CEO of MN.

Data from Statistics SA shows that 50% of the approximately 14 million cattle in the national herd in fact belong to emerging and communal farmers.

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Frazee tells Stephen Grootes that, still having to implement national disaster protocols, they're not allowed to have auctions anywhere in KwaZulu-Natal or the Eastern Cape, and no unvaccinated animal is allowed to move through the system in the entire red meat value chain

From November last year, Frazee says, MN had to cancel the 27 mobile auctions they normally hold for communal farmers' associations in the two provinces.

"From December 2025 to March 2026, we could hold only 6 direct sales to MN of vet-checked, slaughter-ready cattle, from which the communal farmers collectively earned R1.6 million, compared to the more than R20 million they would have earned during the same period from our 27 mobile auctions."

"The national disaster was declared in February when the animals could still maintain condition but now we're approaching winter, and not being able to sell an animal you've been fattening for sale, is going to be devastating for the economy and the rural areas."

While the vaccination programme is probably moving as fast as possible, Frazee says, the problem is that not enough was done before the outbreak happened.

"Now that the outbreak's happened, they're vaccinating an extreme number of animals -I think it's 600,000 since February in KZN alone. Other provinces are not as fortunate... and it's not reaching some of the communal areas where we work."

At the same time, they are hearing that the spread of the disease is continuing, she says.

Scroll up to the audio player to hear more detail from the Meat Naturally Africa CEO