EC milk sales clampdown could cost up to 500 jobs
Farmers frantic as Bhisho acts after kids fall ill
AROUND 500 jobs will be lost if the Eastern Cape government continues to close dairy farms and shops selling unpasteurised and fermented milk.
This was said by Buffalo City Metro farmers who have been served with compliance notices to stop selling raw milk to the public as it is in contravention of regulations relating to the sale of milk and dairy products.
The government’s crackdown on the sale of unpasteurised and fermented milk comes in the wake of a food poisoning outbreak that resulted in more than 1 000 pupils from in and around King William’s Town receiving treatment after allegedly consuming infected milk.
The national and provincial health departments launched an investigation into the cause of the outbreak, with results showing high levels of e.coli bacteria and traces of faecal contamination in sour milk samples.
However, government officials confirmed that not all the sick children had consumed the milk. Officials told the Daily Dispatch not a single member of the general public had reported being sick from consuming the milk.
Patrick Rushmere of Rosilyn Farm said the shutting of the dairies would have a detrimental effect on those who work at the 40 to 50 farms across the region. “If you think of all the employees of the farms, the retailers who buy from the farms, the small shops and backyard guys who buy and resell to their communities, we are looking at hundreds of people whose livelihoods will suffer.”
The farmers are now appealing to government to halt the process of shutting farms and shops. The farmers are also appealing to BCM to allow them to sell raw milk legally.
According to regulations relating to milk and dairy products, no one is supposed to sell raw milk in the province except for dairies in Aliwal North, Jamestown, Middelburg and Reddersburg. “We would like to urge BCM to help us get into Annexure C so that we can sell raw milk as we believe that our milk is clean,” said Dieter Hempel of Bellevue farm.
The farmers argued that the price of pasteurised milk per litre would be too expensive for low-income groups as it would be increased by the need to buy special machinery and packaging and labelling. “The BCM directorate tests our milk regularly and I’ve been in this industry for 30 years, they have always found us to be complying with the rules and health standards,” Hempel said.
The farmers argue that the health department has not furnished them with proof that the pupils fell ill as a result of bacteria found in the milk.
They further claimed they were never told they were not allowed to sell raw milk until they were hit with compliance notices recently.
The farmers claim that most farmers are scared to speak out because they fear being issued with notices.
While farms in BCM have been shut, competitors operating in areas like Stutterheim, Keiskammahoek and Komgha, who fall under the Amathole district municipality, are allegedly continuing with the sale of raw milk.
“There are thousands of litres of milk crossing our boundaries into the BCM every day. We think that is unfair,” said Sherene Fourie.
Fourie’s Innesfree Agriculture and Dairy in King William’s Town was closed on October 28 which has resulted in her having to turn away about 80 customers a day.
“There are hundreds of shops still selling raw milk,” she said, adding that she had been forced to reduce the work hours of her staff and that laying them off would be her last resort.
Five farms and two dairy shops have been stopped from selling milk.
Amathole district municipality’s spokesman Siyabulela Makunga said although the municipality monitored dairies and took samples of milk on a monthly basis, none of them had been closed.
Makunga said ADM’s health practitioners were part of the investigation into the cause behind the King outbreak.
BCM had not responded to questions at the time of writing.