Southern Mozambique: Eggs will be scarce during festive season because of bird flu in SAfrica

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Southern Mozambique: Eggs will be scarce during festive season because of bird flu in SAfrica

11:09 CAT | 05 Dec 2017

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The Mozambican government announced yesterday in Maputo that the festive season will be marked by a shortage of eggs in the southern part of the country as a result of the bird flu epidemic in South Africa.

The government did however say there were sufficient stocks of food and drink for this time of year.

National Director of Domestic Trade, Zulmira Macamo, was speaking at a press conference on levels of availability of food and beverage products in the run-up to the festive season.

“The bird flu in [South Africa] has led to many laying hens being slaughtered, and production level have fallen,” Macamo said, adding that central and northern part of the country would not be similarly affected.

Also read: Avian flu: Mozambique to import hatching eggs from Europe

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Macamo said that the Mozambican government has been implementing various strategies to deal with this situation.

“We have been reducing reference prices. Before, it cost R140.00, but at the moment we have reduced that to R100.00,” she said.

Buyers for chicken producers such as Moz Farms and Higest have secured sufficient stock to feed the national markets, having bought 500 and 400 tonnes of chicken respectively.

During this period, 400 ,000 tons of potatoes, 34,000 tons of onions, 46,000 tons of tomatoes and an equal number of cabbages are stockpiled for the festive season.

When it comes to alcoholic beverages and soft drinks, Coca-Cola and Cervejas de Moçambique (CDM) have more than one million boxes of these products ready for delivery.

Other players in the staple food production chain such as MIREC and SASSEKA, also secured enough products, including rice, horse mackerel, pasta, wheat, cornmeal and crackers, for the Christmas and New Year period.

Source: AIM Moçambique