‘Trade restrictions on Brazilian poultry deals a heavy blow to SA’

Hume International says trade restrictions on Brazilian poultry dealt a heavy blow to the local poultry industry. Hume International is one of the largest importers of frozen food-based commodities in South Africa.

South Africa has implemented a ban on Brazilian poultry from the province of Rio Grande do Sul due to an outbreak of Newcastle disease.
This disease is specific to poultry and is not transmittable to human beings.

In June, Brazil voluntarily halted poultry exports to some countries after a case of Newcastle disease was detected in the state of Rio Grande do Sul. The move came as a result of 7 000 birds dying on a chicken farm in Brazil’s southern-most state.

In August, South Africa joined the chorus and a ban was put in place on imports from Brazil. The effect of the ban is that no poultry from Brazil that was produced after 17 June may be exported to South Africa.

Roy Thomas: Hume International’s director explains: “The ban was put in place at the beginning of August and there has been no timeline communicated to us at this point. We are aware that the Department of Agriculture is engaging with the Brazilian counterparts in order to, if I could say, come to a foreseeable future when the ban will be lifted. Currently, the import permit states that poultry only within a 10 kilometre radius should be banned. However, the Department of Agriculture has banned the entire province. So instead of implementing a 10 kilometre, if I can say quarantine around the affected farm, they’ve taken the unilateral decision to rather ban the entire province, which unfortunately is in contravention of world trade statutes, as well as limitations put on by the World Health Organization. In terms of how countries should respond to outbreaks of this nature.”

Risk of of high food price

Hume says the ban poses a risk to another round of high food price increases. This comes as the local poultry industry is just recovering from the crippling effects of the recent bird flu outbreak.

South Africa is the biggest importer of Brazilian poultry products.

“South Africa is very reliant on certain products from Brazil, predominantly products that are used in the manufacturing space. A big product that South Africa imports is mechanically deboned meat. They import over 18,000 metric tonnes of this product every single month and this product is used in the production of your lower LSN products such as your palonies, your sausages, your viennas and your chicken nuggets and South Africa doesn’t have a tangible resource internally that can meet the demand for this product. So it is a product that is always going to be imported into South Africa,” adds Thomas.

Hume says the ban has the potential of hurting the pockets of households and having dire consequences for the South African processed meat industry, which employs thousands of people in factories across the country.

Heavy blow to local poultry industry as SA implements a ban on frozen Brazilian chicken: