South Africas egg production industry has drawn a line in the sand on switching its production method from battery cages to free-range as mobilised by global animal activists FOUR PAWS in an ongoing online campaign.
The South African Poultry Association (Sapa) yesterday said that untenable price increases and consumer sentiment would seriously devastate the sector, worth more than R20 billion, which has already been besieged by the impact of avian influenza outbreaks, load shedding, and higher feed costs.
Sapas CEO for egg production, Dr Abongile Balarane, said that based on a study they had commissioned the National Agricultural Marketing Council (NAMC) to do, the macroeconomic and socio-economic impacts of the cage-free layer hen system would reduce production by about 26.3%, with a significant increase in production costs.
Referring to the study, Balarane said capital expenditure for a cage system was R355 per hen compared to R461 per hen for cage-free systems, requiring a direct investment of R4.9bn to convert to a total cage-free system and the cost, spread over five years, would bring an additional cost of between R5.70 and R6.00 per dozen of eggs.
Balarane said the sector was hard-pressed with food security interventions following the loss of about 30% of the 30 million birds population in the last outbreak of the avian flu, with recovery expected to take a year longer.
