Staples like chicken and eggs may soon become unaffordable luxuries for ordinary South Africans.
Mense can soon expect to pay almost R100 for a dozen eggs as prices are skyrocketing due to the avian flu outbreak.
Stores are forced to ration eggs and many retailers have empty egg shelves, reports IOL.
A tray of 30 extra-large eggs is currently selling for R105 at PnP, up from around R60 to R70 just a few weeks ago.
Chicken farmer Achmat Brinkhuis says the avian flu impacted what is called the parent stock.
The parent stock refers to the birds selected and raised for the purpose of producing fertile eggs, which are then used to hatch broiler or layer chickens.
Brinkhuis deals specifically with layer chickens.
“So what this bird flu strain has done is that it infected the parent stock so there are no eggs because all the birds had to be culled. A lot of farms had to kill a lot of birds, we are talking about millions of birds,” he said.
According to Brinkhuis, nearly a third of the egg production industry in South Africa has been affected, disrupting the value chain.
He says the rising price of diesel and electricity is exacerbating the crisis.
However, Brinkhuis assures that the South African Poultry Association, of which he is a member, is currently in negotiation with the government regarding vaccines for this virus.
“The only thing we can do now is up our security, cleaning our houses and closing up when appropriate. As soon as we get the vaccine, we can get back on track,” he explained.
“The consumers out there unfortunately bear the brunt of it. The feed prices also went up because we don’t have grain due to the floods. It’s an amalgamation of things that disrupt the value chain.”