The Department of Agriculture, Land Reform and Rural Development’s national spokesperson, Reggie Ngcobo, said in an earlier statement that since the egg production cycle is not too long, the department expects the situation relating to the replenishing of egg stock levels to normalize in the early stages of 2024 as the HPI outbreak is under control and that 70% of farms that were not infected continued to produce eggs and chickens towards the end of 2023.  Poultry farmers in the Northern Cape are amongst those that remained unaffected by the HPI outbreak as confirmed by the provincial department’s Phemelo Manankong.  Ngcobo stated that should the situation not improve the department will continue to import more eggs. He says that at the moment there is not a clear indication as yet on any new developments, as it needs to be established.      

Journalist: Rene Julies
Email: rckjulies@gmail.com