The Production, Processing and Preserving of Red Meat and Red Meat Products

This report focuses on the South African red meat sector, where the value of the production of the formal industry was estimated at R44bn in 2015. During the last decade domestic per capita consumption of red meat has risen steadily and the official estimate for formal sector consumption for the 2014/2015 season was 27.23kg per capita per annum up from 24kg per capita per annum in 2013. Red meat animals, primarily cattle, pigs, sheep and goats are reared in many different ways in a variety of extensive and intensive farming production methods throughout the country by a variety of industry players from subsistence farmers to mega farmers.

Drought

The production sector faces one of the greatest challenges, in the form of the current drought, yet experienced since formal agriculture commenced. Sustained drought has resulted in a rapidly diminishing national herd and in May 2016 eight provinces were declared disaster areas by the government. Both commercial and informal farmers have been affected and there was a year-on-year decline of 12.7% or R1.306bn in livestock inventory for the January to December 2015 period. There are long-term financial and debt implications for possibly as many as 2,000 commercial farmers, who Agri SA estimated in February 2016 were in severe financial distress, and 80,000 small-scale farmers.

Report coverage

The Production, Processing and Preserving of Red Meat and Red Meat Products describes the sector, highlighting current conditions and factors influencing the success of small-scale and commercial farmers and meat processing companies. In the report 43 role players are profiled, ranging from small abattoirs such as East London Abattoir (Pty) Ltd, which employs 12 permanent and 60 contract staff, to industry giant Karan Beef (Pty) Ltd, which owns a feedmill, cattle abattoir and operates a de-boning and meat processing plant. Also profiled are meat processors such as Watsons Baconeries (Pty) Ltd t/a Watsons Meat, which uses 1,200 tons of turkey, chicken, beef and pork per annum to manufacture bacon, smoked meat, sausages and processed meats.