Red Meat Producers' Organisation (RPO) and Agricultural Business Chamber of South Africa (Agbiz) welcomed Zimbabwe last week lifting the ban on the importation of cloven-hoofed animals and their products from some provinces in South Africa. This follows a notice issued by the Veterinary Services Directorate of Zimbabwe.
The notice said on January 7, 2025, the Veterinary Services Directorate of Zimbabwe lifted the ban on the importation of cloven-hoofed animals and their products from South Africa, but with a significant caveat. “This lifting applies exclusively to animals originating from the provinces of Gauteng, North West, Northern Cape, and Western Cape. Exports from other South African provinces remain prohibited until further assessments are conducted.”
The notice added that these precautionary biosecurity measures are a crucial component of Zimbabwe’s strategy to monitor and manage the ongoing foot-and-mouth disease outbreak affecting parts of South Africa.
Wandile Sihlobo, the chief economist at Agbiz, said the government and industry’s efforts to control animal disease spread must be lauded.
“The past three years have been challenging for South Africa’s livestock and poultry industry because of the spread of animal diseases. Throughout this period, we have had various cases of foot-and-mouth disease (FMD) in cattle, African swine fever in pigs, and avian influenza in poultry. While animal disease outbreaks are not unique to South Africa and indeed common across the world, South Africa’s challenges have intensified in the recent past,” he said.
In 2022, six of South Africa’s nine provinces reported foot-and-mouth disease outbreaks.
“This was the first time in the country’s history that the disease had spread this wide. The challenging place the country found itself in prompted the government and industry stakeholders to increase their focus on strengthening farm biosecurity controls and surveillance,” he explained.
However, Sihlobo said on October 25, 2024, the Department of Agriculture released positive news that the FMD outbreak, occurring during 2021-2022, had been successfully resolved in the North West, Free State, Gauteng, and Mpumalanga Provinces. These provinces, initially impacted by the outbreak, had completed testing of animals on quarantined farms indicating it was no longer present. This was confirmed by the World Organisation for Animal Health.
However, KwaZulu-Natal and Eastern Cape remain affected by FMD outbreaks.
Dr Frikkie Maré, the CEO of RPO, said since the outbreak of FMD in South Africa in 2018/19, South Africa’s borders have been closed for the export of animals, genetic material (semen/embryos), and meat to various countries.
“Although we managed to keep certain borders open for meat exports, and managed to open a number of additional borders in the meantime, it was basically impossible to export any live animal or genetic material to our neighbouring countries. The fact of the matter is that countries like Namibia, Botswana, and Zimbabwe, amongst others, had always relied heavily on South African genetics to improve their herds,” he said.
The closure of the borders created two significant problems, he added.
“Firstly, the producers in some countries were no longer able to source any genetic material from South Africa, which caused the quality of their breeding programmes to decline.
“Secondly, South African stud breeders could not sell bulls, rams, semen, or embryos to breeders in other countries, which basically means that they lost a share of their market. The opening of the market thus benefits both Zimbabwean farmers, as they can obtain genetic material, as well as South African farmers who can now again sell genetic material to Zimbabwean farmers,” Maré said.
BUSINESS REPORT