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Poultry farmers in South Africa culled around 10 million chicks due to the power crisis in the country. As has been reported in different media, the blackouts have greatly impacted the poultry production chain with a reduction in the production of chickens and delaying their processing.
Different poultry producers and farmers warned that food security and the economy in South Africa will be seriously affected if the problem is not resolved.
According to Izaak Breytenbach, General Manager of the South African Poultry Association, the problem avoids processing chicken in the usual schedule (24 hours). Moreover, as it is not possible to work with the usual equipment and machines, production has been reduced by a quarter leading to delays in the slaughter and an increase in the number of chickens at the farms, causing diseases and mortalities due to overcrowding.
He added: “When we take chickens into an abattoir there’s a water bath with electric stunner and that is the main approved method of killing the chickens,” he said. “And then in that whole process where we do the cut-up of the chicken, the temperature is controlled in the abattoir.”
The South African Poultry Association said that poultry producers were forced to cull 10 million chickens in a few weeks due to this situation. Consequently, the shortage of chicken production impacts the job of many farmers and employees. Therefore, job losses have been estimated at a 33%.
Additionally, Breytenbach indicated, “If the government doesn’t resolve the power shortage soon, the price of chicken will increase even more than last year, when
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