Meat processors in South Africa are concerned that the ban announced on imports of poultry from Brazil could trigger a shortage of mechanically deboned meat (MDM), a product input the domestic production of which is at a low level.
Many products and businesses rely on mechanically deboned meat, and a prolonged ban on poultry from Brazil over an avian flu outbreak in the province of Grande Rio do Sul could cause a supply shock in the country, Bruce Smit of the SA Meat Processors Association (Sampa) said.
“We are interested in MDM. The fight between importers and exporters… isn’t Sampa’s issue. The issue for us is that the local market doesn’t produce MDM in any significant quantity. It’s a very important input that goes into polony, pet food, and other products.”
Brazil is the largest exporter of poultry in the world, and its exports to South Africa have proven contentious in a sector where calls have been made on the government to impose protections against an influx of cheap poultry imports.
Urging a quick solution to the H5N1 avian influenza pathogen, Smit said no other country produces as much mechanically deboned meat as Brazil and that a supply shock would “decimate” jobs and remove access to cheap protein for low-income households.
“Sampa ... is concerned about the future of our members. Brazil is a massive country, and if you could have zoning, it could ensure that we don’t have a prolonged shortage. We have been engaging positively with the government, and we hope for a solution, but for now this is very worrying.”
As the winter months are a period of lower demand for chicken, the additional supply should be sufficient to ensure there are no shortages of chicken meat or price increases because of shortages.
— Izaak Breitenbach, GM of the Broiler Organisation at the SA Poultry Association
Smit said Sampa members support 125,000 jobs in meat processing, food production and manufacturing. Spazas and retailers will suffer without mechanically deboned meat and related meat-based products and the knock-on effect on related businesses will be massive for sanitisation and packaging.
He remarked that a regionalised zoning policy enhanced with biosecurity that isolates outbreak sites could protect the market and allow imports of safe products to continue. “If Germany has bird flu, they don’t ban poultry from the Netherlands just because the two are close.”
The department of agriculture was receptive to discussions with industry, he said. While no meetings had been confirmed yet, Smit hoped to meet with officials this week.
Mpho Maja, the national director for animal health, said the duration of the ban would depend on how soon Brazil contains the outbreak and submits the information it has agreed to share with the South African government.
“That would depend on their survey lens to demonstrate that there is no longer a circulating virus [once they get to that point]. In the discussions we had with Brazil, one thing we put on the table for them to consider is compartments.
“Locally, we rely heavily on compartments to secure sites that we can certify as free of diseases — farms that have biosecurity measures that ensure you do not introduce diseases onto the farm."
Izaak Breitenbach, GM of the Broiler Organisation at the SA Poultry Association, said the local industry was producing about 21.5-million chickens per week, and the industry had the capacity to increase this by about another million birds per week.
“As the winter months are a period of lower demand for chicken, the additional supply should be sufficient to ensure there are no shortages of chicken meat or price increases because of shortages.”
The local industry supplied more than 80% of the chicken consumed in South Africa, and while Brazil was the major source of chicken imports, most of this was mechanically deboned meat and offal.
“If there is a problem following a ban on Brazilian imports, it will concern MDM, not fresh or frozen chicken meat. MDM is a paste used in the production of processed meats such as polony and sausages.”
Breitenbach said compartmentalisation would ban imports only from the affected region or province, but allow imports from the rest of the country. Brazil has no compartmentalisation agreement with South Africa and it is up to Brazil to apply for it.
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