Agriculture

Floods impact chicken supply in KZN

The devastating floods which have killed hundreds in KwaZulu-Natal, demolishing homes, factories and infrastructure, are going to make food supply in the region that much more difficult.

An example is Rainbow Chickens, a major employer and chicken producer. It is part of RCL Foods, which has said that it could take weeks to meet customer demand for its chicken products.

Roads and bridges have been washed away. Not only does this affect deliveries, but workers have been unable to get to its Hammarsdale production plant, which was undamaged.

“People getting to work will be an issue for some time. As a result, we will not be able to meet the full demands of our customers for some weeks to come,” said Stephen Heath, RCL’s group corporate affairs director.

The government has declared a state of disaster because of the flood havoc. Perhaps that will speed up infrastructure replacement.

Photo courtesy of GCIS.