The South African Poultry Association (Sapa) welcomed the precedent-setting judgment by the Eastern Cape High Court that a farming entity, which lost more than R31 million when its stock was culled during the outbreak of avian flu in 2021, be allowed to resubmit its claim for compensation.
This comes as the Eastern Circuit Local Division, Thembalethu, sitting in Cape Town on Friday ruled that the Director of Animal Health in the Department of Agriculture, Land Reform and Rural Development (Dalrrd) and the Minister of the Department were amiss in awarding the George Moerasrivier Boerdery nil compensation in January 2023 for the culling of chickens at their farm in terms of the Animal Diseases Act.
The court ruled that the claim for compensation be remitted to the Director of Animal Health for reconsideration and that the Director should take into consideration that the applicant’s destroyed “animals or things” shall be valued on the basis that they were in a “healthy” state.
This is a welcome move after farmers lost more than R10 billion in the last outbreak.
The court ordered each party to pay their own legal costs.
Sapa CEO Izaak Breitenbach said farmers need to be compensated as culling without compensation was not sustainable and would invariably have medium- to long-term price implications for the consumer.
He said the court had ruled against the Director of Animal Health’s claim that diseased and in-contact birds had no value.
The industry as well as the court contend that these birds indeed have value as seen in the case in all other countries.
“Farmers have lost over R10bn in 2023/24 due to culling infected flocks without compensation. This does not account for the replacement of lost stock, sterilising and sanitising the chicken houses or the additional feed and water cycle to grow the replacement stock ready for market,” he said.
The George Moerasrivier Boerdery in May 2021 had to destroy all 195 648 chickens on site plus all poultry products including 3 199 536 eggs, as well as manure and feed in accordance with governmental avian flu protocol.
In June, avian flu was also detected on the farm Moerasrivier, ultimately resulting in the destruction of a further 181 704 hens, 10 000 free-range chickens and 2 186 796 eggs, again along with manure and feed, all leading to a loss of R31 892 847.63 based, essentially, on market value of the destroyed chickens and product.
In November, the Director rejected the claim, informing the applicant that avian flu infected and in-contact chickens have no value and therefore nil compensation was payable.
Moerasrivier lodged an objection to the Minister, who subsequently appointed a panel of senior officers to conduct an investigation regarding the reasons for the objection and it recommended that the decision for fixing compensation at zero be set aide and that the matter be remitted for reconsideration by the Director.
It suggested the Director settle the matter with the Moerasrivier farm at an acceptable compensation value, but subsequent interaction with the Director did not produce the desired results even after the submission of documentation from the applicant to substantiate the claim.
BUSINESS REPORT