The South African Poultry Association has acknowledged that certain areas are experiencing stock issues due to the industry still being in the process of rebuilding normal production levels. According to Dr. Abongile Balarane from Sapa, 30% of the poultry industry was devastated by the outbreak, which affected several provinces in 2023.‘It will take us about 17 months to recover that lost production.
‘We also lost some breeding stock. So we have to start by producing fertile eggs which will be placed in incubators. From those incubators you get your day-old chick. From that day-old chick, you have to raise it until it gets to 18 weeks. Once it’s at 18 weeks to 19 weeks then it starts to give you eggs,’ he said.‘Closer to December this year we’ll start to see from that 30% , maybe 20% recovered or 15% recovered. Early January maybe another 5% will come to the system,’ Balarane added.
‘Farmers decided not to take the existing eggs in the market and crack them to make powder and liquid. We said we’ll rather import that product, the liquid and powder, and all the remaining eggs in South Africa we’ll channel to your retailers where people can buy those fresh eggs. We did have some imports from Swaziland, not a huge quantity, just to close the gaps in some of the areas,’ Balarane said.