SOUTH AFRICA – The Brazilian government has welcomed South Africa’s recent move to approve 19 additional Brazilian meat processing plants specializing in beef, pork, and poultry for export.
The approved facilities are located across nine Brazilian states, including São Paulo,leading with six plants, followed by Rio Grande do Sul, Paraná, Mato Grosso do Sul, Santa Catarina, Minas Gerais, Bahia, Goiás, and Rio de Janeiro.
The distribution includes eight beef processing plants, two equine meat plants, five pork plants, and thirteen poultry plants.
With these additions, the total number of Brazilian establishments authorized to export to South Africa has reached 28, including those with updated certifications.
To date, Brazil has continued to solidify its status as a global leader in meat exports, with over 7 billion tons exported.
Market reports show that in 2023, poultry imports into South Africa increased after a 4-year decline.
Poultry imports (primarily chicken) peaked in 2018 at 56600 tonnes but have since seen a steady decline down to just 373,000 tonnes in 2022. But, for the first 11 months of 2023, imports were higher than the total for 2022, reports BizCommunity.
The largest import categories are mechanically deboned meat (62.6% of chicken imports in November) and offal (18.5%).
The main source of both is Brazil, which now supplies 80% of South Africa’s chicken imports. BizCommunity highlights the EU, which used to be the biggest supplier until it was hit by bird flu, has slowly recovered to 7%.
According to USDA’s South Africa embassy, post chicken meat production is forecast to increase by 3% to 1.65m tons in 2025 as a result of this strengthening domestic sector.
It also forecasts that consumption will rise by 2% to 1.88m tons in 2025, following slightly improved consumer spending power and reduced food inflation – something which is being seen across the whole food basket.
South Africa has also made other two milestones in its meat and poultry industry. The first milestone is lifting a ban on unprocessed UK poultry meat imports.
The other one is the resumption of beef and lamb exports to Saudi Arabia after a long hiatus. The Saudi Food and Drug Administration lifted a 21-year ban on South African meat imports in August 2023, which is expected to significantly boost the economies of both countries.
Hammid Mulla from the South African Halaal Authority said veterinarian approval is critical to ensure that the meat is certified to go to Saudi Arabia.
That is not all, the USDA embassy post also reported on South Africa’s ‘Poultry Master Plan Strategy’, which is looking at increasing its exports in the future, potentially including production of canned chicken for exports to the EU market.
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