SOUTH AFRICA – Local producers are calling for a reduction in poultry meat imports from Brazil, which are selling at lower prices.South African chicken producers have for the past few months complained that poultry imports, particularly from Brazil, have been killing their business.

According to Business Day, for producers such as Afgri, Astral Foods and Rainbow Chicken, the bottom line has taken a knock. The result is that a few producers and the industry body have teamed up to take action in the form of an antidumping case against Brazilian imports. They accuse Brazil of selling whole chickens cheaper in South Africa than in their home market.

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The 32nd edition of Platter’s Guide, launched 8 November 2011, features more than 900 South African wine producers, merchants and brands, including 58 new ones and over 7000 locally produced wines.

The theme for this edition is Thinking Out Of The Box, with (among others) the full-colour photo gallery and many of the entries in the A-Z Directory focusing on organisations and individuals who innovatively employ ideas, techniques and technologies in viticulture, winemaking, packaging, wine tourism, social media, conservation, sustainability, matching wine and food and creating new wine styles.

Total broiler production for 2010 amounted to 969 million broilers or 1.3 million tons of meat, four per cent more than the 931 million broilers or 1.25 million tons of meat produced in 2009, according to the latest GAIN report from USDA Foreign Agricultural Service. In 2011, broiler production is expected to reach 980 million broilers or 1.315 million tons of meat, representing a one per cent increase from 2010.

Read the extended report HERE

According to Francois Strydom, MD of Senwes, South Africa’s second-largest diversified agricultural group, South African agribusiness is looking for international partners in a bid to access global markets, Business Day reports.

Speaking at Senwes’ 2011 suppliers’ function in Midrand, Strydom, reports Business Day, said that agribusiness sectors were going through a consolidation phase while expanding into Africa.

Now he said was the time to decide whether to be part of the international flow of soft commodities to and from South Africa and Africa, or “face the gradual slide into (becoming) an intermediate.”

Business Day reports that Senwes had started moving into East Africa, already has a presence in Malawi, Zambia and the northern region of Mozambique, and plans to enter the Zimbabwean market.

SOUTH AFRICA – Dairy farmers in South Africa (SA) could soon be extinct, with almost two-thirds having already deserted the industry over the last decade as a result of their margins shrinking.

FastMoving.com reports that although the production of milk in SA has increased slightly over the past ten years as farms have grown in size, the defection of almost 5000 dairy farmers has caused severe job losses.

The number of dairy farmers has declined from 7077 in 1998 to 2686 at the beginning of 2011. A total of 646 of SA’s dairy farmers packed up in just the 10 months from March last year to January this year. Koos Coetzee, chief economist of the Milk Producers’ Organisation, which represents around 85 per cent of dairy farmers, says prices now being paid to farmers are on average five per cent lower than a year ago.

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