FairPlay has taken issue with the benevolent description put out by chicken importers of the South African government’s “concession” to the United States on bird flu declarations.
South African bird flu bans on poultry imports are decided by the Department of Agriculture, based on notifications by producer countries to the World Organisation of Animal Health (WOAH). The department decides when to impose of lift import restrictions related to bird flu outbreaks.
Except for the United States, which was given a special concession to make its own decisions on which of its states should be subject to bird flu bans and which are free of the disease and can export poultry to South Africa.
The concession, announced by the department in June, but effective from March this year, surprised and angered the poultry industry, which described it as a conflict of interest for US officials deciding on their own country’s disease status.
The SA Poultry Association (SAPA) asked the government to withdraw the concession, saying that allowing the US to “self-impose and self-lift” bird flu trade bans risked the importation of infected meat. Decisions affecting South Africa and the livelihood of the national poultry industry should be taken in South Africa, SAPA said.
A different, and benign, interpretation of the move has been offered by the ChickenFacts website, which is part of the Association of Meat Importers and Exporters (AMIE) and acts as a mouthpiece for chicken importers.
They depicted the concession to the US as a sensible piece of administrative efficiency, aiming to “minimise delays, support trade continuity, and shield consumers from the price volatility often triggered by supply disruptions”. They disagreed with the poultry industry’s contention that the move compromised local biosecurity and denied that food safety was threatened.
Not so, said FairPlay in a letter published by Business Day. American authorities should not be allowed to declare their states free of bird flu and able export to South Africa, without independent South African verification.
This “represents a fundamental erosion of biosecurity protocols, and South Africa ceding sovereignty to a foreign power,” FairPlay founder Francois Baird said.
“It is a blatant conflict of interest and is akin to putting the fox in charge of the henhouse. This means infected meat could slip through unnoticed, especially if economic or political incentives influence those declarations.
“Reintroducing avian influenza into South Africa, even through packaging or waste, could cripple domestic flocks.”
South Africa’s food safety and agricultural sovereignty should not be sacrificed for trade convenience.
“Speed must not come at the cost of safety. Flexibility must not replace accountability. And imports must never become a substitute for domestic resilience,” Baird said.
