I am writing from the Midlands region of KwaZulu-Natal province of South Africa, having spent the day with the Animal Feed Manufacturers Association of South Africa and participating in their Annual General Meeting. I presented an address alongside the giant of the poultry industry, Mr Chris Schutte of Astral.
Animal Feed Manufacturers are the critical stakeholders of our livestock and poultry industry in South Africa – a subsector that makes up roughly half of our farming economy.
Drought, animal diseases, failing municipalities, stock theft, and higher feed prices are among the recent challenges that have confronted livestock and poultry producers. If we are to be successful in this industry in years ahead, as in the past, we must focus on resolving these challenges.
Most urgently we must tackle the cases of foot-and-mouth disease, avian influenza, African swine fever, and brucellosis that continue to emerge, leading to huge costs to farming businesses. The damage to the industry is vast in terms of loss of productive animals, earnings, and high-value export markets. The damage to confidence should also not be ignored, as the sector will struggle to attract investment if there is no clear strategy for addressing animal disease.
Fortunately, the leadership at the Department of Agriculture understands these challenges. They are working collaboratively with the industry to resolve the issues and ensure that South Africa continues to play an essential role in the export markets for red meat, dairy products and wool. The focus is on finding ways to efficiently control the spread of animal disease in future and minimize the damage to the industry.
In years of harsh foot-and-mouth disease, we lost export volumes. We are now in recovery mode, and the recent outbreaks in a few areas of the Eastern Cape raise worry. For example, in 2022, beef exports fell 16% year-on-year to 26 881 tonnes. We started to see a recovery in 2013, with beef exports up 3% year-on-year to 27 675 tonnes.
Even as the beef industry confronted these challenges, it had already resolved that widening the export market would catalyze its long-term growth. There was evidence pointing to the expansion of exports. For example, between 2017 and 2021, South Africa’s overall beef exports averaged 31 169 tonnes. This was notable progress as the beef exports had averaged 26 670 tonnes five years prior. The spread of animal diseases threatened this export growth.
As we progress with addressing the animal disease, the relentless focus should be on widening the export markets to the Middle East, Asia and parts of Europe. For example, the conversations with China about beef exports this week are appropriate as China is an important market for South Africa that has yet to grow, along with greater potential benefits in the likes of Saud Arabia.
We must also focus on improving the efficiency of the municipalities, reducing stock theft, improving roads and rail function, and the inefficiencies at the ports. These form an essential foundation for a thriving livestock and poultry sub-sector.
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