The Pork industry has low involvement of Black Farmers

The Pork industry has low involvement of Black Farmers especially black female farmers. To survive in this industry one should be willing and able to enter this business. The pork industry is a very high technology business. The cost of setting up a commercial pig farm is high and the risk involved makes the financial institutions unwilling to finance pig farmers.

This industry is known for the fluctuations in prices that have caused the downfall of many farmers. Because of the specialized nature of this industry and the relatively few role players, financiers are very reluctant to fianc? this type of business.

Farmers are forced to fund their operations from their source in order to beat these fluctuations.

On the other hand, pig farming can be easily integrated with a series of other farming activities within the agricultural and aquaculture sectors. Small-scale pig production is a form of livestock keeping that does not necessarily require access to agricultural land and has, therefore, gained importance in the growing sector of peri -urban and urban small scale livestock keeping.

Get quality help now

Doctor Jennifer

Verified writer

Proficient in: Agriculture

5 (893)

“ Thank you so much for accepting my assignment the night before it was due. I look forward to working with you moving forward ”

+84 relevant experts are online

Hire writer

All these advantages make the livelihood activity of pig production a valuable diversification option in small-scale production systems, comparable to some degree to small-scale poultry.

Pig farming used to be and is still recognized as a major source of family income. In rural areas it is used as a supplementary source of funds for particular purposes, for example, to finance children's schooling and to use during the celebration of cultural events.

2. South African Pork Producers Organisation (SAPPO)

The South African Pork Producers Organisation (SAPPO) has since been instructed to investigate how the industry to accommodate Black Farmers.

The intention is to establish future commercial black pig farmers on their land and set them up to be able to breed and grow baconers to be supplied under contract to the market. SAPPO, as a mentor of this program, will provide training for the farmers to become well educated in the field of pork production and identity investors.

3. Market Analysis

The pork industry in South Africa is a small role player when it comes to the total production of meat. In South Africa, studies have shown that there are 112,000 producing sows. This means that, on estimate, these sows produce 153,000 tons of pork per annum. Investigations have also shown that there are not many Black Farmers involved in the production of these figures.

One of the key factors that are mentioned why there are not many Black Farmers involved is the high cost of setting up a production unit as well as the high-level skills required to run such an operation. During 2005, South Africa imported 26,000 tons of pork compared to the average of 7,000 tons during the previous years. Once this farm is in full production, it will be producing 163 tons of meat per year. South Africa could implement 113 farms of this size just on the increase in demand experienced over the last few years.

The South African Pork Producers Organization has managed to secure a levy on all pork produced in South Africa. These funds are utilised in promoting pork and pork products. They are however obliged to spend some of these funds on emerging farmers. The definition of an emerging farmer is not clear, but the intention is to take farmers from the historically disadvantaged communities and present them with an opportunity to get involved in the mainstream economy.

Enterprise Foods, a leader in the pork processing industry is under increasingly growing pressure to increase their input supply into their factory from B.E.E. suppliers around 60% of their inputs consist of pork, this creates a huge possibility for the Emerging Farmers to enter this industry. They have also indicated that they will offer a contract to any Emerging Farmers that could supply them with high-quality product.

Pigs will be delivered to Enterprise Foods on a weekly basis. They have further indicated that they are prepared to offer contracts to Emerging Farmers on the basis that they will be setting the price of the product based on the price of the feed. As the feed is the highest variable on a pig farm, this offer is of utmost importance in creating stability for the farmer. A major factor in this section of the operation is the dedication of the staff members to see that the pigs have access to the feed and clean drinking water at all times. They are also responsible for seeing that sick animals are attended to immediately.