BHS Structures

21/10/2020

20/10/2020

16/10/2020

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07/10/2020

Cool.

05/10/2020

Strong demand for mixed day-old chicks in South Africa

The coronavirus lockdown in South Africa really brought the country to a halt. However, for South African chicken producer Mike Bosch business was brisk. He saw an increase in demand for mixed day-old chicks.
Originally from Zimbabwe, Mike runs his own poultry breeding business in Bela-Bela, a town in the Limpopo Province of South Africa. Since having bred his own indigenous free-range bird called the Boschveld over 20 years ago, Mike has enjoyed huge success exporting his chickens all over Africa. The Boschveld chicken is a 3-way cross between 3 indigenous African breeds: Venda, Matabele and Ovambo, in a ratio of 50%, 25% and 25%, respectively. The breed Mike created has become very popular throughout the African continent with its distinctive red and brown colour with white feathers in between.

Package for smallholder farms
Mike developed a new package that included 10 birds and a small chicken coop to sell to small farmers and anyone who wants to produce their own eggs and poultry meat. This became a huge success and was exported to 17 African countries, but since the coronavirus struck, the export market has all but disappeared. Mike is now concentrating on the home market, which has excelled, particularly so for mixed day-old chicks. Mike said: “The Boschveld chicken is bred purely for hardiness and health. They survive and produce on what nature can provide, with only a small amount of maintenance feed to boost production. Africa can be a tough place to exist, particularly with varying climatic conditions, so we needed a breed that could adapt to the weather changes.”

01/10/2020

Warning: Scam artists now taking advantage of poultry farmers!!!

An increase in the number of fraudsters and scam artists posing as agricultural suppliers has left many farmers across Mzansi disgruntled hopeless.

Poultry farmers in the Eastern Cape are now being taken in and have no chance of ever getting their money back. Scammers are stealing the identities of legitimate suppliers online and using the logo’s of legitimate bodies to signal their “legitimacy” to unsuspecting farmers lured by the cheap prices offered on their websites.

ALERT: tender scams and fake contact details
A supplier who trades under the name “Agri Feed and Livestock Supplies” visually impressed a farmer enough that he reached out to the contact person provided on the site.

“I went on the website and everything looked legit. I had to place my order via WhatsApp through the contact number provided on their site. I placed my order for 100 broilers only, because something in me said that there was a possibility that I was about to be scammed,” Cheap online broilers turn out to be a scam.

He was shocked to discover that the banking details the company provided him was in fact a personal account and not a business account. His order of 100 broilers, which tallied to R800, was also much cheaper than what the farmer would normally pay with other suppliers.
“I asked why they had a personal account and the guy simply said that it was because my purchase was small and not a bulk order,”

After following up three times over the next three weeks, he gave up on receiving his order.
“I KNEW THAT THERE WAS A POSSIBILITY THAT I WAS BEING SCAMMED, BUT I WANTED TO TRY,” HE SAYS.

“The first time I followed up I was informed that I would be getting my order the following week. The following week came and I was told they didn’t have enough packaging for my order. I got tired of following up after the third time, they even stopped responding,” he exclaims.
He warns farmers against making use of agri suppliers with no real references. He says, “As a farmer you must look for referrals. Don’t just make an order online if you don’t know of someone who has done a successful transaction with the company and delivery was done. Rather go check it out yourself.”

29/09/2020

RCL Foods, headquarters in Durban, South Africa Photo: RCL Foods

Powering poultry growth
The poultry industry is the biggest agricultural industry in South Africa, employing in excess of 100,000 people throughout the value chain. About 3 million birds a day are slaughtered in the country. There is room for growth, however. “To do this, we will invest about R1.5 billion (US$ 10 million) in the processing facilities in the country. A further R1.6 billion (US$ 11 billion) is to be invested in farming so that we can produce these chickens. This will enable us to increase our production by 10 to 20% by the end of 2022,” says Izaak Breitenbach, General Manager of the Broiler Organisation within the South African Poultry Association.

This plan accommodates both large and small-scale farmers. The bigger farmers, about 70, who collectively produce 12 million birds per cycle, have invested R35-40 million (US$ 2.4–2.7 million) in their farms. The masterplan aims to double this figure by 2022. This will create the capacity for 50 more such farmers. Steps will be taken to focus on ownership throughout the value chain, and not just on farming. Approximately 25% of the biggest small-scale farmers will be identified and a business plan will be developed for each of them. Funding and support will be geared towards developing and growing them to become a bigger part of the value chain. “If we can grow our industry and make a significant impact on the whole value chain, from grain and poultry production to feed manufacturing, logistics and retail, then as an industry we will be in a position to boost economic growth,” says Breitenbach.RCL Foods, headquarters in Durban, South Africa Photo: RCL Foods

29/09/2020

South Africa’s domestic chicken meat market
Poultry Meat represents more than 60% of the total meat consumption in South Africa. In 2018, chicken meat consumption (excluding offal) was 1.88 million tonnes. The demand for chicken meat in 2019 increase by only 1% to 1.90 million tonnes. This is due to an estimated economic growth of less than 1% in 2019. A 2% increase in the demand for chicken meat to 1.93 million tonnes was forecasted for 2020.

South Africa’s chicken meat market – which has a predominantly lower-income consumer base – is typified by 3 fundamental features.

The predominant demand for bone-in (brown meat) chicken cuts rather than breast meat. Bone-in chicken cuts represent almost 60% of the total chicken meat demand mainly sold as ‘individually quick-frozen’ (IQF) pieces in the form of low price 2kg and 5kg mixed packs.
Almost all locally-produced frozen chicken contains brine in order to preserve and enhance the quality of the meat. The Department of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries introduced a regulation in 2016 to restrict brine content to a maximum of 15% of the mass sold. Brining levels of up to 43% had been recorded prior to 2016.
The relatively small demand for fresh (not frozen) chicken meat which represents less than 10% of the total consumption of chicken meat in the country.

28/09/2020

https://www.farmersweekly.co.za/agri-news/south-africa/easing-of-lockdown-reignites-fears-over-chicken-dumping/

Any gains intended by South Africa’s Poultry Sector Master Plan to reinvigorate the country’s long-ailing broiler value chain will be severely compromised should large-scale dumping of imported chicken meat onto the local market resume.

08/09/2020

02/09/2020

Social Distancing...