Many opportunities await SA's pork industry

Johann Kotzé, CEO of the South African Pork Producers' Organisation, speaks to Janine Ryan about the importance of the informal pig sector in South Africa, as well as the high calibre of the country's formal producers.

- Janine Ryan

Please give us an overview of the South African pork industry as it currently stands.

South Africa currently produces 3,8 million carcasses per year. According to the data of the South African Pork Producers’ Organisation’s (SAPPO) members, there are around 125 000 sows in South Africa.

In terms of the volume produced in South Africa, pork is a relatively small component of animal protein, compared with beef and poultry, for instance. We have around 550 registered pig producers that operate on the formal market.

Of these, around 120 produce 95% of South Africa’s total pork volume on the formal market.

Can you elaborate on the informal pig sector?

The pork industry in South Africa is dualistic: we have a formal sector and an informal sector. For the latter, pigs are not necessarily taken to an abattoir for slaughtering, for instance. The informal sector is thus unregulated, and may include smallholders or subsistence farmers that have a couple of sows in their backyards. In terms of numbers, we estimate that there are around the same number of sows in the formal sector as in the informal sector. The formal sector is a high-risk, low-cost, but high-profit industry.

Pigs in the informal sector are mostly free range, and farmers rely on little infrastructure to keep their pigs. In some cases, farmers may have some areas of shelter for their pigs, but there are no pig houses and so start-up costs are very low. Pigs are fed waste from kitchens, which means that input costs are also very low.

The challenge we face with the informal market is that it cannot be regulated.