Pressure group shelved - for now

A plan to create another ostrich industry association - this one representing the major farmers - has been shelved in favour of working more closely with the SA Ostrich Business Chamber (SAOBC). Mooted by Saag Jonker, whose Saag Jonker Holdings is the biggest local farmer with close on 4,000 breeding birds, the Ostrich Slaughterers' Association would have aimed to represent the 200-odd farmers who supply most of the adult birds to abattoirs, with the principal aim of securing farmers a greater say in pricing. But at a meeting to launch the new association on June 8, most of the 80-odd delegates indicated they would prefer to work through existing structures. The following evening, however, many of the same delegates voted Jonker in as the new chairman of the Western Cape Ostrich Farmers' Association (WCOFA), replacing Vicci Schoeman, who did not stand for re-election. The WCOFA, along with ostrich farmers' associations in the Eastern Cape and the former Transvaal, has six of the twelve members on the SAOBC board, and Jonker's election indicates that they expect him to ensure a more significant farming voice in the board's operation, and in the way Ostrivision 2004 is run. The other six board members represent skin, meat and feather processors. 'My biggest concern is that farmers have very little say in pricing', Jonker said. 'It's not unheard of for the processors to announce that they will pay 20% less to farmers, yet this is a long process for farmers - we're starting to breed now, and the last birds from this breeding season will be slaughtered in 2006. Farmers need greater price stability. Imagine if the processors went to their customers and simply announced that prices were going up by 20%.' He said meat prices were more stable than skin and feather prices, and that ostrich meat had kept the farmers in business. 'Before deregulation in 1994, farmers received about R1,600 ($260) for the skins, R300 ($50) for the meat, and R100 ($15) for the feathers - a total of R2,000 ($325) for the bird. Now those prices are around R750 ($115), R750 and R50 ($8) respectively - in ten years, the total the farmer receives has gone down quite substantially.' Jonker said he was 'prepared to work for a more collective decision-making process', but that he would 'give it until the end of the year to achieve such a structure'. If he felt there wasn't sufficient progress by then, he said he would review his position. He has ruled out, however, going it alone with his own abattoir and tanning operations. 'We already have a finishing plant, which we've mothballed. There's enough tanning and slaughtering capacity, and much of it is already standing empty.' Tel: +90 044 203-3227; fax +90 044 203-3228, e-mail: maritalamprecht@webmail.co.za