Sanitary towels not provided to pupils in need
221,866 tonnes, compared with 2015’s 227,270 tonnes.
But in 2017, things have begun to change as there has been a sharp 31.5% rise, to 185,233 tonnes in Brazil’s exports to SA from January to July, compared with the matching period in 2016, a rise that could be related to the December tariff increase on European imports.
Having plentiful land and water and benefiting from the increase in the production of maize and soya since the introduction of genetically modified crops, Brazil is hard to beat in terms of the competitiveness of its chicken. It produced 97.2-million tonnes of maize in 2016-17, of which Brazilians consumed 56-million tonnes, and 28-million tonnes were exported. As animal feed represents 65%-70% of the cost of chicken production, having low feed costs is a significant cost advantage for Brazil. The Department of Health has spent more than R800m researching, producing and distributing Max condoms, but has not put a business case to Parliament to provide sanitary towels for pupils or to have VAT on them scrapped.
Two proposals in November 2016 — one to supply free sanitary towels and another to scrap VAT — were put to the Treasury.
But the Treasury indicated it could allocate money only if presented with a business case and policy and “so far none of the potential departments that could assist had presented such a case, and for this reason, nothing had been allocated”.
Six years have passed since President Jacob Zuma announced that sanitary towels would be included in the national health plan.
According to Africa Check, there could be 3.7-million girls who cannot buy sanitary pads while menstruating.
The debate on the provision of free sanitary pads has been raging for years.
According to champions of women’s dignity, SA is lagging in policy development because of a lack of financial incentives.
Countries such as Kenya and Botswana have made such provisions a part of their national policies and budgets
Basic education spokesman Elijah Mhlanga said the specialists involved in the Integrated School Health Programme, which is implemented by the basic education, health and social development departments, determined which department must take the lead.
Mhlanga said while the issue of sanitary pads was important, “we would not be the lead department when it comes to policy development”.
The Department of Health did not respond to enquiries by Business Day.
The country is also completely untouched by avian flu, being largely off the migratory paths of the wild birds that are its main cause.
A study of the competitiveness of South African broiler production by the Bureau for Food and Agricultural Policy (BFAP) in conjunction with the Landbouw Economisch Instituut at Wageningen University in the Netherlands found that South African producers achieved high levels of technical and economic efficiency in their poultry production. However, South African feed costs were €343 per tonne in 2013 compared with the average of €285 per tonne in surplus feed grain-producing countries such as the US and Brazil.
BFAP researchers Tracy Davids and Ferdi Meyer noted in an article in Oilseeds Focus magazine that since 2010, “more than half the growth in chicken consumption [in SA] has been supplied through imported products. From 2010 to 2015, imports increased by more than 90%, from 240,000 [tonnes] to 457,000 tonnes, raising concerns related to the industry’s ability to compete in the global context — and consequently, its long-term sustainability.”
SA’s surplus maize crop in 2017 will ease the burden that high animal feed prices placed on the industry during the drought and that worsened its competitiveness against European rivals.
For long-term sustainability, South African producers will have to achieve greater economies of scale by ramping up production and exporting. To do so will require continued government support in restricting the influx of cheap imports.
LARGEST CHICKEN EXPORTERS BRAZIL AND THE US DO NOT COMPETE IN THEIR MAJOR MARKETS