Every new year is a chance for a re-set, even if the problems remain the same. Our opening news salvo in 2024 deals almost exclusively with the rising cost of living in South Africa, a spill-over from last year – and a result of poor governance, global instability, and climate change.
International News
The global picture for the poultry industry is a swings-and-roundabout scenario, with lower global feed costs but the looming threat of recurring Avian Flu.
National News
News 24 highlighted the price of eggs and the shortage of chicken as one of the features of Christmas SA 2023. The shortages did not happen, but the price increases certainly did.
Consumer News
Anyone who has visited a supermarket in the last few months will attest that the basket gets smaller and smaller while the cost gets larger and larger. Nine staple foodstuffs increased in price by more than 20% in 2023.
Industry News
The Food for Mzansi newsletter interviewed a few emerging farmers about their experience of Avian Flu, and discovered that it would take almost two years for production losses to be recovered.
Support Industry News
Here is good news for an entrepreneur looking to enter the poultry-feed market: seaweed, it turns out, might be a low-cost alternative ingredient in chicken feed.
And finally…
In other news…. Who cares about the oldest chicken in the world? A lot of people, it seems. Peanut lived until the ripe old avian age of 21, and earned a place in the Guinness Book of Records.
