The Mozambican government has authorized an extraordinary quota for the import of chickens from Brazil and Turkey to minimize the impact of the ban on the entry of poultry products from South Africa, following outbreaks of Highly Pathogenic Avian Influenza (Bird Flu) in some South African provinces.
In this context, importers will be able to buy around four thousand tons of chicken from Brazil and Turkey.
According to the director of Livestock Development at the Ministry of Agriculture, Américo Conceição, cited in Wednesday’s issue of the Maputo daily “Notícias”, the chickens could arrive in the country in around a month.
He also said that local producers had been authorized to import hatching eggs from Brazil and Turker to guarantee the production process.
The country is already experiencing a shortage of chickens and eggs, due to the ban on the import of these products from South Africa.
Recently, Morrumbene district, in the southern Mozambican province of Inhambane, slaughtered 35,000 laying hens as a result of this outbreak and the northern Nampula province detected salmonella (which causes serious food poisoning) in frozen chicken that is being sold all over the province.
This has led to a rise in the price of these foods in the main markets in the country.
Eggs are currently being imported from Eswatini, which due to the pressure has increased the cost of the product to twice the price it was around four weeks ago.
To avoid bird flu infections, the National Livestock Development Directorate recommends that producers only introduce birds into their aviaries after an inspection or even submitting the animals to two weeks of quarantine.
