No need to panic buy eggs – says Department of Agriculture
Extra measures are in place to ensure South Africans can continue to enjoy their favourite egg dishes and roast chicken these upcoming holidays.
The Department of Agriculture said in a statement on October 2, that following an outbreak of avian flu, plans are in place to mitigate a predicted egg shortage in the country.
Minister Thoko Didiza said that there had been an improvement in speeding up the issuing of import permits for egg products to ensure sufficient supplies for consumers. The Department has already granted 115 permits for eggs, 48 for egg powder and over 2 400 permits for poultry meat.
“The Department of Agriculture is allowing the importation of eggs and poultry meat to ensure sufficient stocks for the holiday season.
“We are happy that the HPAI outbreak is under control and that 70% of farms that were not infected continue to produce eggs and chickens.
“Since the egg production cycle is not too long, we expect the situation to normalise early next year. We will continue to import more eggs should the situation not improve,” she stated.
The department said that the importation of eggs is ‘ongoing and not a new thing now because of the avian flu outbreak.’
Countries including Brazil, USA and Argentina have been exporting eggs to South Africa for some time and the department is currently processing import permit applications from a few more countries.
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