No need for panic buying as egg stocks replenishing steadily, assures Agri Dept
Seventy percent of farms not infected continue to produce eggs and chickens, and the Department of Agriculture said it has a few open import permits for eggs and poultry products from several countries.
CAPE TOWN - The Agriculture Department said egg stocks are replenishing steadily, and there's no need for panic buying.
This follows an outbreak of avian influenza which the department said is now under control.
Seventy percent of farms not infected continue to produce eggs and chickens, and the department said it has a few open import permits for eggs and poultry products from several countries.
The Department of Agriculture's Reggie Ngcobo said the importation of table eggs, fertilised eggs, pasteurised eggs, egg powder, and liquid eggs has been ongoing for many years, and not only since the start of the current avian flu outbreak.
"A few countries that include Brazil, USA, Argentina, and others have been exporting eggs to South Africa for quite some time and we are currently processing import permit applications from a few more countries.
“As a department, we don’t dictate which countries should make business sense for South African retailers to import eggs from but only ensure that biosecurity risk assessments are conducted when importers apply for import permits."
