You could be seeing more kinds of wild meat in Woolworths and Checkers as SA looks to change its laws
|Published
You could be seeing a whole new and more diverse variety of meat products, like wildebeest, on the shelves soon. File Image: IOL
You could be seeing a more diverse variety of meat products on store shelves soon, according to the Department of Forestry, Fisheries and the Environment.
In mid-July Minister Barbara Creecy published the department’s “draft game meat strategy for South Africa”. The minister has now extended the deadline for comments on its draft.
Essentially, the draft hopes to formalise the game meat industry in the country and expand what can be sold on store shelves.
According to a statement by the government “South Africa is renowned internationally for its abundant wildlife”.
The new draft will provide very real market opportunities for the country, that could derive from the harvesting of game meat and related value-added products.
“The strategy and implementation plan are aimed at creating a formalised, thriving and transformed game meat industry in South Africa that contributes to food security and sustainable socio-economic growth,” said Creecy.
It should be noted that the aim of the draft is also to attract investment in the game meat sector and to open local, regional and international market opportunities.
This requires transformation of the industry to ensure future growth in this sector.
Most South Africans may not know this but the game meat industry is mainly a by-product of hunting and is predominately an informal industry that operates in a fragmented manner.
The government says that the industry is largely untransformed, and there is a very low participation rate of previously disadvantaged individuals.
The ministry wants to create a formalised game meat industry to achieve the economies of scale necessary for commercial ventures based primarily on game meat production, harvesting, processing, distribution and marketing.
WHAT ARE COMMON GAME MEATS?
The most locally sourced, produced and consumed game meat in SA includes:
- impala
- kudu
- wildebeest
- springbok
ARE BIG RETAILERS CHOMPING AT THE BIT?
Woolworths said that the company was aware of the draft game meat strategy. The retailer said that it would be developing a more robust game meat product offering for its shoppers if the government gives the go-ahead.
According to BusinessTech, Woolworths is already selling venison, ostrich and biltong from various game species in its stores. Shoprite and Checkers have also said they would look to offer a number of game meat options to their consumers.
FOR RICHER OR FOR PAW?
In early September, the animal welfare organisation, Four Paws in South Africa, said in a written submission to the department that they are concerned that some of the proposals of the draft strategy are contradictory to the recently published White Paper on Conservation and the Sustainable Use of Biodiversity.
The director of the organisation, Fiona Miles, says while the white paper outlines steps that are progressive for conservation and biodiversity in South Africa, the draft game meat strategy, on the other hand, advocates for industrial-scale breeding, farming, and slaughter of wild animals.
“These are two deeply conflicting trajectories. There is a distinct lack of inclusion in the proposals of the draft game meat strategy of principles of animal sentience, welfare, and wellbeing as proposed in the department’s own draft White Paper on Conservation and the Sustainable Use of Biodiversity,” Miles said in a statement.
BUSINESS REPORT