US poultry imports must balance local economic imperatives and health standards
SOUTH Africa, the US and chickens have featured prominently in domestic and some international news stories this past week. The country has been in intense negotiations with the US to ensure safe imports of poultry, pork and beef products from the US, as a requirement for South Africa’s continued participation in the African Growth and Opportunity Act (Agoa) agriculture trade benefits.
Economists and analysts suggest that South Africa may be behaving recklessly because we cannot afford to lose the Agoa trade benefits. It seemed like the matter was resolved last week until a media reported on Monday that there are new developments on this matter.
Highly toxic
I have watched media reports on these negotiations with interest in light of the fact that the Food and Drug Administration of the US found in 2015 that there were traces of inorganic arsenic found in chickens grown in the US. This substance was found in the livers of nearly half of all chicken tested. The World Health Organisation has this to say about the impact on inorganic arsenic on humans:
“Arsenic is highly toxic in its inorganic form; long-term exposure to arsenic from drinking-water and food can cause cancer and skin lesions. It has also been associated with developmental effects, cardiovascular disease, neurotoxicity and diabetes.”
This should fill us with deep concern, since according to Standard Bank’s AgriReview of the broiler industry, “chicken meat still remains an affordable protein source relative to other meat-protein sources. South Africans consume more chicken than beef, pork and lamb combined.”
The importation of chicken containing inorganic arsenic would therefore potentially have a serious impact on the major- ity of our population and I believe that Minister Rob Davies has been taking a correct position on this issue. We must find a balance between ensuring the growth and development of our economy and the health and wellbeing of our citizens. We cannot, as a nation, compromise on this.
Daybreak Farms, of which I am chief executive, has built our business model around balancing these equally important objectives – the need for financial viability while serving the people of our country in a safe manner. Our customers and our suppliers have come to expect this of us.
In aiming to balance these imperatives, Daybreak produces between 1.3 million and 1.5 million birds every week at our abattoirs in Delmas and Sundra, Mpumalanga. We also have two breeder farms in Limpopo and contracted egg-layer farms in Kwa-Zulu Natal. Our primary focus is in producing good quality poultry at an affordable price and since this is the main protein consumed by South Africans, this becomes even more important.
We also try to create as natural an environment for our hatching eggs possible and therefore take 2 million eggs to our hatcheries in Settlers in Limpopo, where we set the eggs – just as naturally as a hen would sit on the eggs – for a number of days until hatching. This process yields approximately 1.6 million to 1.7 million chicks a week of which 1.5 million (making provision for mortality) are placed on our own farms and contract grower farms.
Our chicken feed is also manufactured through Daybreak’s feed mills and water and brine are used as preservatives for our chickens to avoid the use of chemicals. We are already in the process of putting containers in townships in order to bring our chickens closer to the consumer in local communities to ensure we can contribute to economic growth and development in these communities.
Entrepreneurship, financial viability, economic growth and development are not mutually exclusive. Daybreak Farms has shown that a business model which takes these factors into consideration can be very successful. What is required is social responsibility and consciousness of something greater than solely an economic gain. We at Daybreak Farms will continually strive to provide good quality food to the nation at affordable prices.
Food security and nutrition is something that the private sector must join hands with government in aiming to deliver to the country.