RECENT news reports that 10-million chicks had to be euthanised due to loadshedding, has the usual suspects predicting that the latest effect of power losses spelling doom for our food security and the countries millions of citizens.
The boom in poultry production in this country does bring into sharp focus from where the majority of South Africans obtain their daily protein – particularly where dedicated fast food outlets are able to provide cooked chicken for the many millions that do not have the necessary cooking or refrigeration facilities that the more affluent take for granted. A shortage of KFC or Chicken ‘Licken and its attendant price increase may just be the straw that breaks the ANC’s back!
One thing is for certain amongst the mess that is loadshedding is that the cost of just about everything will rise and add to the burden of poverty for those already in it and push those on the edge, over it.
We have all seen the rise in food prices – especially chicken, blamed variously on worldwide inflation pressures, high fuel prices, shortages of fertilizer and stock feed caused by Russia’s war in Ukraine, and now loadshedding. It will be interesting to see whether the profits of the major retailers show an increase at times of their financial disclosures and confirm what many believe that the supermarkets are price gouging – not letting a good opportunity to raise prices slip by.
If as they continuously claim that their input costs are the main reason for the increases in food prices, then their profits should remain the same as pre the Ukrainian conflict. Any increase will confirm the foregoing gouging allocations despite their often trumpeted commitment to ‘better value’ and ‘improved internal efficiencies’.
That farmers are having bumper years must be seen as a good thing for the economy as in addition to being able to satisfy hungry mouths at home, a flourishing export trade adds valuable foreign exchange, so long as the impediments of loadshedding and deteriorating rail and harbour facilities put the brakes on further expansion.
Knock on effects
Most farmers are extremely entrepreneurial and this trait coupled which several years of favourable rains and climatic conditions have resulted in a booming sector. Increased yields have knock on effects – the market for agricultural machinery has also shown an upward spike with more purchases of tractors and sophisticated field machinery which helps build momentum and jobs in the industry. Downstream the packers and producers have also seen increasing volumes but is there enough purchasing power in the local economy to take full advantage of this abundance?
Clearly poverty strangles increased consumption and the evils of loadshedding, corruption and mismanagement of vital infrastructure ie Transnet – which like all bar one of the SEO’s is not only morally bankrupt but financially too, which effectively strangles the whole country’s growth potential.
So, rather than turning a new 2023 page we are saddled with the same issues that beset us in 2022 with no end in sight to this ANC made mess. Let’s hope that a potential crisis in poultry farming is the catalyst that will see the demise of this corrupt regime in 2024.
