Blanket ban on Brazilian chicken imports could spark SA food security crisis, warns importer
Government needs to act urgently to enable imports from provinces in Brazil NOT affected by a bird flu outbreak, says Merlog Foods' Georg Southey.
Chicken feet. Wikimedia Commons/Neil Conway
The Money Show's Stephen Grootes talks to Georg Southey, manager of Merlog Foods.
South Africa is facing one of the most severe food security crises in recent times due to the decision by the Department of Agriculture to ban all chicken imports from Brazil after a limited outbreak of bird flu, warns local firm Merlog Foods.
This threatens the most vulnerable in our society including children reliant on school feeding schemes, says Georg Southey, manager of the company which imports frozen chicken and chilled food products.
The outbreak of Highly Pathogenic Avian Influenza (HPAI) is confined to a single province in Brazil, Southey emphasizes.
He says the Department's current approach fails to consider internationally accepted trade principles of regionalisation, which allow imports to continue from disease-free zones within a country.
Regionalisation is a scientifically grounded, World Trade Organization (WTO)-aligned strategy that balances animal health protection with essential food security and economic continuity.
Our neighbour Namibia is one of the countries that has adopted regionalisation protocols in similar situations, Southey says.
Brazil is South Africa’s largest supplier of imported poultry, accounting for up to 80% of its chicken imports.
The bulk of its mechanically deboned meat (MDM) is used in products like polony, viennas, and sausages, which provide affordable protein to millions of South Africans.
"Local farmers can bring additional product, but what they produce is a whole chicken. What we're going to see is a gap, which is feeding and servicing the poor and vulnerable in South Africa."
Georg Southey, Manager - Merlog Foods
"Statistics SA recently put out that there's about 30% of food-insecure houeholds in Mpumalanga, Limpopo, Free State and Northern Province; and those people can't afford to use full-muscle chicken meat. They're dependent on things like these polonies, things like chicken feet and necks and livers."
Georg Southey, Manager - Merlog Foods
Merlog Foods is calling on government to act with urgency by adopting a regionalisation strategy for poultry imports from Brazil by accepting imports from all other provinces that remain unaffected by the virus.
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