In the wake of a crisis in South Africa’s poultry industry, causedby the Highly Pathogenic Avian Influenza (HPAI) outbreak, the government haschosen to promote certain poultry imports, in an attempt to lower consumer pricesheading into the Christmas season.

The government has lowered the barriers to the importationof fertile eggs, egg products like powder and liquid eggs to ensure asufficient poultry supply during the festive season.

The Department of Agriculture, Land Reform, and RuralDevelopment has granted permits for various poultry products, including fertileeggs, egg powder, poultry meat, and table eggs.

This raised concerns at a committee meeting on the 20^thof October that the lowered barriers would disadvantage the local industry at atime when it has been deeply crippled by the outbreak. The last official reportdeclared nearly 1.5 million chickens either dead or culled in the crisis, andindustry experts added that the sector would take at least 17 months torecover.

This makes it a vulnerable window, during which foreignpoultry producers could capture a greater sector of the market, and many localproducers may not be able to recover.

The industry nevertheless supported these measures, as manyof the items under consideration were necessary for the recovery of their ownsupply chains, and to combat the HPAI outbreak.

South Africa is also seeking assistance from bird-flu-freeneighboring countries in the Southern African Development Community (SADC) tomeet poultry product demand, Namibia in particular.

Regulations have been revised to establish clear rules forimporting eggs and products, including a 40-day rule to ensure egg quality andsafety, which the industry welcomes, encouraging compliance to safeguardconsumers and maintain quality standards.