... accuse the gvt of destroying their businesses
Moroke Sekoboto
LOCAL poultry farmers have accused the government of destroying their businesses by not fully lifting the ban it had imposed on the importation of chicken products from South Africa.
Although the government announced the lifting of the ban on poultry imports from South Africa last week, the farmers said the government was only allowing the importation of frozen chickens.
Imports of live chicks and fertile eggs from South Africa - which they require for their farming operations - remained banned, they said. They said they had been told that they could only source these from Zambia, Eswatini, Botswana, Brazil and Turkey.
However, they said that proposal was unrealistic. They required transit permits from South Africa to move these products across that country. That was however costly and not easy.
It was easy for them to just import these products from SA itself as they had always been doing. They also complained it was difficult for them to find suppliers from the suggested countries.
Although it is now allowing the importation of frozen chickens, the government has maintained a ban on the importation of live chicks and fertile eggs from South Africa because of the Avian Flu. The first blanket ban was imposed on 12 October last year before its partial lifting last week.
The angry farmers said at a press conference in Maseru yesterday that by only allowing the importation of frozen chicken, the government was only boosting big retail businesses which sold that product.
Local farmers needed to be allowed to import the products they needed to rear their own chickens for sale, they said.
The Minister of Agriculture, Food Security and Nutrition, Thabo Mofosi, had last week told the Lesotho Times that the government had lifted the importation of frozen chicken from South Africa, save for Gauteng Province which was still hit hard by the Avian Flu.
Mr Mofosi also said the government would assist local farmers in the importation of poultry products such as fertile eggs and live chicks from Zambia, Botswana, eSwatini, Brazil and Turkey. He pledged assistance to any farmer wanting to source the products from the countries. Poultry import permits would be issued by his ministry to ensure farmers only sourced from accredited suppliers from areas verified to be free from the Avian Flu.
The farmers dismissed the minister's stance yesterday. They said they were not getting much help from his ministry. He was ruining their businesses by only allowing the importation of frozen chicken from SA.
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They said the government's solution of importing from other southern African countries was a challenge because of the transit permits issue.
One of the farmers, 'Mantsane Rantekoa, said the government was effectively forcing them out of business.
Ms Rantekoa said they could not be expected to import from Brazil and Turkey as their operations were small scale to meet the quantities required to order from these countries.
The farmers insist the government should allow them to import all the products they need from South Africa, particularly from provinces that were now free of Avian Flu.
"The ban is killing our businesses ....We have had to send our employees home . We call on the government to lift the ban on importing from South Africa fully because some areas there have been declared as being free from the Avian Flu infections," Ms Rantekoa said.
"We had hoped the minister (Mofosi) would address our issues, but he has not. We have therefore escalated the matter to the Prime Minister (Sam Matekane) and we are awaiting his response.
"We are surprised by the ban because this is not the first time there is an Avian Flu outbreak. There was an outbreak in 2017, 2018, 21 and 2022. No blanket ban had been imposed."
She claimed, without elaborating, that it seemed like politicians and officials were now maintaining the ban to promote their personal interests.
Efforts to get a comment from the agriculture ministry failed by the time of going to print.
