2023-10-25 08:00:00
In the incubator at the Melo Chicks hatchery south of Johannesburg, the 5,000 eggs arranged neatly in a row heat gently. Brooding at 37.5°C, which after 21 days will allow the hatching of laying or meat hens, intended to join other small farms. “We operate in three-week cycles,” explains Adrian de Melo, the father of the owner of this family farm. These eggs will be ready in a week, those in the other incubator in two weeks, and in the third there should be the new eggs, but we haven’t received anything to fill it. »
In the peak season for poultry farming, fertilized eggs are increasingly difficult to obtain. A consequence of the avian flu which has been hitting South African farms for several months: first H5N1, the most common in the world, then H7N6, a new strain which is very contagious and mainly responsible for the setbacks of poultry farmers. More than 200,000 chickens died in a few months in the country, and the dozens of outbreaks identified in several regions led to the slaughter of 7.5 million hens, according to the government and the National Poultry Association, i.e. between 20 and 30% of the South African herd.
Laying hens particularly affected
Laying hens have been the most affected, and large farms, which produced fertile eggs both for their own needs and to resell them to smaller farmers, can no longer meet the demand, which has increased tenfold.
Adrian de Melo’s hatchery bears witness to this: of the twenty farms that provide him with eggs, only one can no longer ensure regular deliveries. “Normally, 400 cartons of fertilized eggs pass through here each week, which makes around 144,000 eggs. Today, we’re lucky if we manage to get 50 boxes. The calculation is quickly done, it is only an eighth of what we obtained before. » At the end of the chain, small farmers therefore receive almost nothing. “If this continues, many will have to go out of business,” laments Adrian de Melo.
He himself no longer knows how to keep his twenty employees busy. Even his production of incubators, which he designed himself and which are built on the farm, is slowing down. “If there are no eggs, no one wants to buy incubators!” »
A new blow for the poultry industry, already hard hit by power cuts.
Eggs at a premium
The egg shortage also concerns table eggs. Particularly in the Gauteng region (including Johannesburg and Pretoria), which was particularly affected, they have simply disappeared from many supermarkets and grocery stores. In others, rationing measures were put in place. The Woolworths chain has therefore decided to limit the purchase of eggs to six per customer, “in order to be able to share the available eggs with as many customers as possible”, it explains in a press release. Similar measures have been taken by Pick n Pay, while Spar stores have said they are considering possible imports.
The few boxes of eggs on sale have seen their price double, pushing customers to reevaluate their consumption. The most accessible source of protein, eggs are very popular in South Africa. “We eat a lot of eggs because they’re cheap. But now it has become much too expensive, that worries me a lot,” complains an elderly woman in a supermarket in a working-class area of Johannesburg. In front of her, the “egg” section was filled with cartons of milk. A single shelf still has a few boxes, barely visible. On the ground lie the old price tags, 26 rand for a box of 12. The current price is 23 rand for a box of 6.
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