Load-shedding hurts chicken producers
SOUTH African chicken producers will ask the government to help them guarantee electricity supply to the nation’s biggest abattoirs as almostpower cuts are harming the birds’ welfare and creating health risks.
The slaughterhouses‚ some of which can process as many as 13 000 chickens hourly‚ can’t rely on generators as they aren’t able to create sufficient power for their needs‚ South African Poultry Association CEO Kevin Lovell said.
The birds were typically stunned unconscious by electrocution before they were decapitated while hanging upside down‚ he said.
When power cuts interrupt the process‚ the birds “have been stunned but they haven’t been killed; they’re hanging upside down and they’re coming back alive”, he said.
“It’s a real problem. And it’s a huge waste problem because everything that stops in the process‚ sometimes hundreds of tons‚ has to be cleared. You have to clean and sterilise and then you have to dump at a medical waste site.”
While Eskom’s rolling blackouts follow schedules‚ they are sometimes imposed at a few minutes’ notice.
Abattoirs belonging to producers including RCL Foods and Astral Foods slaughtered about 958million chickens last year‚ Lovell said.
The association would approach the department of agriculture‚ about asking Eskom and municipalities to directly control power supply to 20 of the largest slaughterhouses‚ which processed about 80% of the country’s production‚ and to provide about eight hours’ notice before cuts were introduced‚ he said.
Eskom would attempt to accommodate the needs of the industry once producers had made an approach‚ Khulu Phasiwe‚ a spokesman for Eskom‚ said.
A company operating in the Western Cape had arranged that it was forewarned about disruptions and switched off supply to its feed mill during the day in exchange for not having electricity to its abattoir cut‚ Lovell said.
“Maybe that’s the sort of solution we can come up with,” he said. — BDlive