Source: Avian Flu crisis: Poultry producers slam govt – DailyNews Live
Bridget Mananavire 3 September 2017
HARARE – Poultry producers have slammed government over the Avian
Influenza crisis, accusing it of not taking decisive action in curbing the
deadly highly pathogenic virus which has decimated the country’s poultry
population.
The producers, who are importing hatching eggs at a steep 40 percent duty,
said government must formulate policies to protect the threatened
industry.
The Avian Flu virus – also known as H5N8 – which was detected in May this
year, has seen table eggs supply drastically dwindle and prices
increasing.
Zimbabwe Poultry Association (ZPA) chairperson Solomon Zawe said
government should waiver the 40 percent duty requirement.
“Today we have bird flu (and) we don’t have policies to curb that or to
compensate producers who would have been affected. At this point in time,
we have been importing hatching eggs from Europe to supplement our
market,” he said.
“The region has no capacity to supply us with hatching eggs. We need to
import hatching eggs all the way from Europe at 40 percent duty. It’s
taking us years just to waive that 40 percent so that we import hatching
eggs as a raw material. Bird flu we cannot talk much about it as industry,
government should be making too much noise about it.”
With eggs and chicken having overtaken beef as the main protein source for
many long-suffering Zimbabweans because of their affordable pricing,
panicking authorities earlier announced that they would escalate their
surveillance of the key poultry industry – warning that if the avian flu
spreads to small-scale chicken producers, it would become increasingly
difficult to control the situation.
While Zimbabwe’s largest eggs producer, Irvine’s, whose chicken farm was
ravaged by Avian Flu outbreak, did not give this paper details on how the
virus has affected their produce, reports suggest the company was seeking
permits to import eggs to avert the crisis.
Figures from the Poultry Association of Zimbabwe shows that total egg
production in the first quarter of 2017 is estimated to have declined to
3,6 million dozen from 4,7 million dozen in the same period in 2016,
largely due to disinvestment by small-scale producers in table egg
production.
The department of Livestock and Veterinary Services last week said it was
working around the clock to contain the highly-pathogenic virus.
“Every effort is being made to prevent infection from escaping the
establishment. The disease had initially been detected and confirmed on
May 24, 2017 and the situation had stabilised following complete
depopulation of affected poultry sites by June 1, 2017,” it said.
COMMENTS