A call has been made for South Africa’s Department of Agriculture to seek a new trade agreement with Brazil that would allow for the continuous import of safe chicken products despite outbreaks of avian influenza.

This comes as a similar year-long trade arrangement was reached with the US by South Africa for chicken imports.

The local food industry said such an agreement was needed with Brazil which is the country’s biggest supplier of mechanically deboned meat (MDM).

According to a letter released by the Department this week, the agreement empowers the US to manage its own internal export bans at the state level. This means chicken can continue to be exported to South Africa from unaffected states, while those experiencing bird flu outbreaks are temporarily excluded.

Georg Southey, General Manager of Merlog Foods, one of South Africa’s largest importers of chicken and chilled meats, welcomed the deal and said the same model should be replicated with “all trusted global trading partners.”

“This is especially the case with Brazil, the largest supplier of mechanically deboned meat to South Africa,” Southey said.

MDM is a key ingredient in many low-cost protein products such as viennas and polony. Around 95% of MDM used locally is imported from Brazil, where a recent outbreak of bird flu in a single state prompted South Africa to halt all poultry imports from the country.

Southey warned that for every week of delay in resuming imports from Brazil, another 100 million animal-protein meals are lost.

Merlog Foods, which supplies protein products to local retailers and meat processors, has long advocated for a regionalised response to avian flu. The approach, endorsed by the World Organisation for Animal Health, allows countries to impose import bans only on the affected regions, rather than entire countries.

“Many countries which import chicken from Brazil have already implemented regionalisation processes to allow safe imports to continue. These countries include Japan, Mexico, Cuba and notably neighbouring Namibia,” Southey said.

He said countries such as Denmark and the Netherlands, currently free of bird flu, would also have been able to resume exports to South Africa under a similar model.

“I am pleased the Department of Agriculture has taken a proactive step by formally requesting Brazil to provide technical information about its avian influenza outbreak in order to open access to critically needed MDM from most parts of the country unaffected by the disease,” said Southey.

“I have good reason to believe a regionalisation approach will be enacted as early as next week once Brazil provides relevant information to South African authorities.”

Southey added: “Merlog Foods trusts that when the Brazilian authorities provide the relevant information, the Department of Agriculture will act with speed to prevent a looming shortage of affordable protein needed by millions of people.

THE MERCURY

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