With climate change intensifying and animal diseases likely to become more prevalent, the Department of Agriculture should consider earmarking part of their annual budget to deal with outbreaks, says Wandile Sihlobo, chief economist at the Agricultural Business Chamber.
The funds should be used under strict rules and in concurrence with National Treasury, and only in the case of notifiable animal disease outbreaks, he said yesterday.
“This is necessary to control animal movements, buy vaccines, employ additional staff and compensate producers when animals must be culled according to the World Organisation for Animal Health guidelines.
"Veterinarians and animal health technicians are critical for continued surveillance, monitoring and advice to farmers. The process of authorising veterinarians in the private sector to deliver services on behalf of the State... should be a priority,” Sihlobo said.
South Africa's livestock industry has faced numerous challenges over the past few years. One is the rise in feed prices since 2020, especially for maize and soybeans.
“The rise in animal feed prices coincided with a worsening in consumers' financial strain due to the damaging effects of the pandemic. Thus, we saw a decline in the demand for red meat products as consumers opted for relatively cheaper forms of protein.
“Moreover, the spread of foot-and-mouth disease (FMD) to six of South Africa's nine provinces for the first time in history was another challenge for the industry. This brought temporary bans in certain export markets, extending to auctions and livestock movement, mainly cattle, for some time in 2022.”
Despite the FMD-related export bans, South African beef producers sent sizeable volumes of beef products to markets that did not close the import channel. This was evident in the beef exports for last year, which amounted to 28 422 tonnes, albeit down 12% from 2021, according to data from Trade Map. This was only mildly below the ten-year average exports.
Fresh beef accounted for 54% of overall exports, while the balance was frozen beef. Within this total figure, a significant decline was recorded in frozen beef exports, which were at 12 945 tons last year, down 24% year-on-year. Meanwhile, fresh beef exports increased by 2% year-on-year to 15 477 tons.
Sihlobo said the outbreak of foot-and-mouth disease also negatively impacted South Africa's wool exports. China, which accounted for roughly 70% of South Africa's wool exports in value terms, temporarily suspended these in the second quarter of 2022, and only opened the market at the end of August last year.
“This resulted in a 21% year-on-year decline in export value of wool in 2022, to $337 million (R6.1 billion), according to data from Trade Map. Still, this is significant, accounting for 3% of South Africa's record agricultural export value of $12.8bn in 2022. Meanwhile, beef exports were about 1% of agricultural exports, valued at $151m in 2022.”
In June, the Red Meat Abattoir Association will host its conference and congress in the Western Cape. The gathering will give feedback and discuss the implementation of: independent meat inspection services; residue monitoring as part of meat safety assurances; the impact of FMD; export requirements and opportunities; the effectiveness of refrigeration and the economy of meat tenderness and quality; and, the impact and solutions to heat shortening in beef.
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