Rioting in South Africa has had harsh effects on the country’s poultry industry, causing supply chain disruptions, theft and struggles to get feed to the birds in live production.
Riots and violence have been occurring following the recent arrest of former South African President Jacob Zuma, who was convicted of contempt of court after failing to attend an inquiry into corruption during his time in office.
According to a News24 report, problems caused specific to the poultry sector include the theft of chickens, arsons at farms and threats to commit arson at poultry plants. Because of those threats, birds are not being slaughtered at abattoirs.
Izaak Breitenbach, general manager of the South African Poultry Association (SAPA), said the industry is struggling with numerous problems related to these riots.
“The biggest issue is the threat to food security developing as our central distribution centres are closed and not taking in anything. We slaughter about five million birds a day nationally - about 30% of these in KwaZulu-Natal - and they end up in cold storage, but the stores are getting full," said Breitenbach.
"The ability to move animal feed to poultry farms and other livestock sectors has also been severely disrupted and can lead to a massive animal welfare issue for the industry.”
In addition to that, day-old chicks could not be placed on farms and had to be euthanized.
A spokesman for South African poultry company RCL Foods said there have been problems getting a supply of soy, which means its feed mill has not been able to produce.
Six of Africa’s eight largest broiler companies are headquartered in South Africa, including RCL, Astral Foods, Country Bird Holdings, Sovereign Food Investments, Daybreak Farms and Quantum Foods.
Quantum Foods is also the second largest egg producer in Africa with a flock of 3.1 million hens.
