Agriculture, Land Reform and Rural Development on availability of eggs and poultry meat

15 November 2023

The Department of Agriculture, Land Reform and Rural Development wishes to inform the South African public that egg stock levels are replenishing steadily and that there is no need for panic buying at this stage.

The department has a few open import permits for eggs and poultry products from a few countries. Import of table eggs, fertilised eggs, pasteurised eggs, egg powder and liquid eggs has been on-going for many years in South Africa and has not only started with the current outbreak of the Highly Pathogenic Avian Influenza (HPAI). Other countries including Brazil, USA and Argentina have been exporting eggs to South Africa for quite some time and the department is currently processing import permit applications from a few more countries.

The department does not dictate which countries should make business sense for South African retailers to import eggs from, it only ensures that biosecurity risk assessments are conducted when importers apply for import permits.

At the same time, Minister Thoko Didiza says the department is 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,” added the minister.

To prepare for the festive season as we approach December, the following have been imported:

Fertilised eggs - 9 million

Day-old chicks - 37 802 tons

Egg products - 62 metric tons

Poultry meat - 30 986 metric tons

“We have increased fertilised eggs from 1.9 million to 9 million in less than one month. These eggs will be chickens in less 4 months,” Minister Didiza concluded.

Issued by Reggie Ngcobo on behalf of Department of Agriculture, 15 November 2023