Meat producers count the cost of inclement weather on the sector

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DUDUZILE RAMELA: Hello – and if you’ve just joined us, welcome.

Let’s take a look at this. Inclement weather has adversely affected meat producers in the Northern Cape, with some farmers not being able to access markets due to poor infrastructure, and roads being washed away by the heavy rains preventing in some areas the response to the foot-and-mouth disease [FMD] – in terms of vaccinations – from reaching red meat producers in that province.

Yolandé Botha is a provincial commodity officer of the Red Meat Producers Organisation, and she joins us.

Yolandé, thank you very much for your time this evening – more to give us an overall picture of what it is that you have witnessed as you continue to count the damage. But the preliminary results, what are they telling us?

YOLANDÉ BOTHA: Well, at this stage the temporary disruption of the vaccine programme due to the severe flooding in parts of the Northern Cape is a serious concern for our livestock sector in the short term.

In the short term the biggest challenge is the interruption of the disease-control activities in affected areas, where access roads and farms and infrastructure have been damaged and remain inaccessible.

This creates uncertainty for our producers and delays the critical preventative measures for livestock health.

Any delay in vaccination increases vulnerability in high-risk areas, particularly where animal movement becomes difficult to monitor during disaster conditions.

DUDUZILE RAMELA: Thank you very much again for joining us. I think you were trying to explain to us the response from some of the meat producers who have had access cut off, and these vaccination proceedings and the response to FMD is really being impacted in the Northern Cape.

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YOLANDÉ BOTHA: Yes. At this stage, some of our farmers are inaccessible owing to floods, the roads being washed away, or the land having to wait for vehicles to access them in order to continue the vaccination rollout that was scheduled.

So the Department of Veterinarian Services in the Northern Cape has made a call to farmers who were scheduled to do a vaccination, to give their details and tell us if they are able to get the animals back into the kraals in order to do the tagging and vaccination.

So we’ve got a list of farms that have been less affected which we can access, and the vaccination will continue in those areas.

In the areas that are currently inaccessible we will wait until it becomes a little drier, and then we will continue with that effort as soon as it becomes accessible and the veterinarian teams can safely reach affected farms in this area.

DUDUZILE RAMELA: Are you concerned about the time lapse and the gap – and the time it would take you to get to some of those areas because of what happens in the lull period of the vaccinations not getting to where they need to?

YOLANDÉ BOTHA: I am not too concerned at this stage about the areas that we have to vaccinate.

We don’t have that many positive cases confirmed by lab results.

However, we do have a lot of high-risk areas and most of these areas have been vaccinated; and the areas that have been identified most recently are accessible.

So it is more for preventive measures that we are concerned with accessing those areas. That is now of concern.

There are two areas in the Free State that are very difficult for us to access, where there is no fencing for the animals.

So they’re free to roam, and then spreading the virus can be a problem because they are not being contained – and especially in this type of weather.

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Where it’s wet and it’s colder, the FMD virus seems to be a little more resilient and it is more active for longer periods of time, which then obviously increases the chances of the spread of FMD virus.

That is why we, together with all the other partners and veterinarian services, are keeping a close eye on what’s happening and on the reports coming through, as we expect a little trajectory increase with recorded cases.

DUDUZILE RAMELA: What do you say to a listener who is concerned, one, about prices, and two, about the meat quality itself. Can you give a reassurance that there’s nothing to worry about – that you can head to your local store, get your red meat in good tip-top condition, of tip-top quality? And in terms of prices, can you talk to that please?

YOLANDÉ BOTHA: With regard to meat safety, consumers should not be worried at all to buy any meat products in the shops.

The most concerning factor would be if somebody is buying from an unregistered slaughter operator, maybe somebody that slaughters in the backyard. That is a concern.

But if you buy meat that you obtain through retailers or through abattoir services, I can guarantee that meat is in good condition as they should follow certain standards.

And quality assurance involves a lot of inspections being performed by Samic [South African Meat Industry Company] as a standard in the industry to make sure of the meat safety.

Secondly, we had Dr Armanda Bastos from the University of Pretoria do a scientific research project for us, and it’s still ongoing.

But from that project it has been proved that 16 days after the animal has been vaccinated and goes for slaughter, 16 days after that vaccination date there are no active viruses in the meat.

Now, the whole process is ongoing, and that is quite important for us for [our] export markets, because it changes the whole playing field.

But I can assure people, with the process that’s being followed in abattoirs – the aging the meat and the standing of the meat – the pH levels drops. So there is no concern at all for any consumers about the quality of meat that they’re getting. It’s still the best quality.

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And remember, this type of foot-and-mouth disease is not transmissible to humans. It’s not the same disease that you commonly know among people, which is also called food-and-mouth.

That is a completely different type of virus. It’s not the same virus. So foot-and-mouth is not transmissible from cattle to humans to have any effect for them.

DUDUZILE RAMELA: That is quite reassuring.

YOLANDÉ BOTHA: Yes. As far as prices are concerned, we are operating in an open market system where demand depends on what is available. Those economics of scale come into play, and that determines the pricing.

I think with market access being a bit of a problem at this stage, where people and farmers have been quarantined, we have seen fewer calves being sent for slaughter as they were under quarantine and could not move, but I don’t think that will have a long-term effect.

It has affected us now, but from the research that has been done I think farmers will soon be able to send their animals to markets for slaughter within a short period of time.

So we should see the prices of beef soon stabilising.

As for sheep, sheep are not really affected at this stage. So for that red-meat sector and goats it’s not really having any impact on those prices. There are other factors that are affecting meat.

And I think we also have to take into consideration the increases in diesel and everything; that has also had an effect on the price changes that you see in retail shops on meat. It’s not solely because of foot-and-mouth disease.

DUDUZILE RAMELA: Ma’am, thank you for your time this evening. Yolandé Botha is provincial commodity officer at the Red Meat Producers’ Organisation in the Northern Cape.

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