Gauteng Agriculture and Rural Development MEC Vuyiswa Ramokgopa has launched the first Egg Master Plan project, the Shumbaset egg packing station, in the Gauteng West Rand. The project will involve the sorting, grading, packaging and distribution of chicken eggs.

Shumbaset is representative of a group of four egg farmers in Gauteng who approached the South African Poultry Association (Sapa) and the Gauteng Department of Agriculture, Rural Development, and Environment (GDARDE).

The concept was to develop an egg packing station that could assist the four egg farmers and some of the other smaller egg farms in the province to fully comply with the R345 grading and packaging regulations and also enable them to supply their produce to formal markets.

Sapa: Egg Organisation CEO and GM Dr Abongile Balarane said on September 27 that 2023 was a “very difficult year”, which saw the South African egg industry losing about 30% of its production to the bird flu, with many of the affected farmers scrambling to overcome difficulties in accessing finance to restock their farms.

Amid this unfavourable situation, he said the Sapa: Egg Organisation maintained its commitments set out in the Egg Master Plan and that it would continue to do so.

This included continued lobbying and discussions with the government regarding the availability of vaccines as the long-term solution for bird flu.

Balarane added that the Sapa: Egg Organisation would also crack down on the collection of the egg statutory levies from all egg farmers in South Africa. He said that a minimum of 20% of these funds would be shelled out towards achieving transformation in the sector.

Further, he said the Sapa: Egg Organisation would drive the establishment of dozens of egg depots and packing stations in malls and shopping outlets, especially in townships and rural areas, in response to its vision to align the industry with the government’s economic empowerment policy.

He said these actions would help close the economic gaps between black and white poultry egg farmers.

Balarane said the Shumbaset concept fitted one of the objectives of the Egg Master Plan. Sapa, together with GDARDE, investigated the concept, developed the business case, and invited some of the private stakeholders in the egg industry, including the National Agricultural Marketing Council, to participate in the project.

The Shumbaset packing station has one of the first egg grading machines in the country imported from abroad. The machine can grade about 72 000 eggs an hour or 600 000 eggs a day on a full working shift.

“The machine is not at full working capacity, but already 48 full-time jobs have been created on site, with more jobs to come from the farms as the throughput increases,” Balarane said.

The facility will not only serve the four original beneficiaries of the project but will also allow some of the other smallholder farmers in Gauteng to sell their produce in the formal market as well.

A strong logistics arm rounds out the project and is already supplying many of the well-known formal retail stores, Balarane added.

“The Sapa: Egg Organisation believes that, by pooling our skills and resources and working together with the government and all other relevant and important parties, we can and will yield better results for all South Africans,” he said.

Balarane said the Sapa: Egg Organisation would continue with its partnership with the government to address some of the issues that remain detrimental, such as the bird flu, to lay the foundation for an improved future for the South African poultry industry.

He said that this boiled down to ensuring that all South African egg farmers were able to continue contributing to food security through the uninterrupted supply of versatile and nutritious eggs and end-of-lay hardbody hens.