Business Report checked in with the poultry industry to understand the impact of load shedding on the sector.
South African Poultry Association CEO Izaak Breitenbach said yesterday that a bulk of farmers used coal-driven solutions to keep their chicks warm, and to a lesser extent, gas-powered solutions. Abattoirs had a much tougher time during periods of load shedding though as they are big consumers of electricity.
Each carcass needs to be cooled to below 7°C within 45 minutes of being slaughtered. That was when the meat was cut and the product was either put in a cold store or a freezer.
He said many companies used generators, but continuously running these generators cost a lot of money – as a rule of thumb, an abattoir that slaughtered 1 million birds per week spent approximately R100 000 each hour that they were running generators.
Companies that did not have generators can have up to 10 000 birds hanging on shackles in the abattoir not being processed.
"These birds are lost and disposed of during load shedding due to a lack of cooling and potential food safety issues. Therefore, the losses due to load shedding is material, and doesn’t even begin to factor in the products that don’t make it to the market in time" Breitenbach said.
BUSINESS REPORT