BASOTHO will finally have chicken on their dinner tables after the government lifted a ban on poultry products from South Africa imposed four months ago. The Department of Livestock Services said the decision was with effect from yesterday. Keneuoe Lehloenya, who is the Director of Livestock Services, said the department had decided to lift the ban imposed on poultry products from South Africa “except Gauteng, Mpumalanga, Limpopo, and Western Cape provinces”.
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She said import permits will be issued only for compartments certified free from the Highly Pathogenic Avian Influenza (HPAI), a serious bird disease that requires a rapid response because it is highly contagious and often fatal to chickens.
Lehloenya said it is South African veterinary authorities that will issue certificates for farms that are free from HPAI.
The import permits by Lesotho authorities will not be given for poultry products from “farms situated near or epidemiologically linked with affected farms”.
“They will not be considered for import,” she said.
The lifting of the ban comes after Agriculture Minister Thabo Mofosi temporarily banned imports of all poultry and poultry products from South Africa due to the bird flu outbreak last November.
The highly infectious bird flu had struck several provinces in South Africa, affecting major chicken farms.
There were reports that South Africa had culled 7.5 million birds, between 20 and 30 percent of its production chicken stock.
Mofosi issued the directive revoking all import permits for poultry and poultry products with immediate effect.
The bird flu outbreak came as South Africa’s chicken industry was already grappling with power shortages which have hit their production.
Chicken is the most imported meat in Lesotho.
In the 2019/2020 season, chicken constituted 81.1 percent of meat imports from South Africa.
Pork was at 15.8 percent, beef at 2.3 percent and mutton at 0.7 percent.
Nkheli Liphoto
