2023 Predictions and the Poultry Industry
After pouring over the financial, agricultural, and political predictions for 2023 (and the next 2 years) and sifting through the happenings of 2022, certain essential factors for the poultry sector have become clear.
Slow Progress is still progress
While the world economy is still fluctuating and unstable the poultry industry is set to grow by 2% globally and South African exports are expected to grow by 3-5%.
This is a small win for the poultry industry as more people move over to chicken as their primary meat choice, due to the upward cost of red meat.
Loadshedding – Replenishable Resources are Slower to Acquire
The South African loadshedding headache is not going away any time soon. By the third quarter of 2022, loadshedding reached an all-time high of 1054 hours (47.7% of the time) which is an average of 14.8 calendar days per month. The knock-on result is enormous, with one of the major effects being that production of replenishable tools such as blades is significantly slowed (along with all other manufacturing industries), thus extending lead-times.
Due to the nature of the processes which are required to achieve exact tolerances and hardnesses (an uninterrupted 6 hours for heat treatment being the main concern) for blades and machine parts, finding time slots between loadshedding schedules is tricky to say the least.
Russian – Ukraine War
The war between Russia and Ukraine is another major factor in production and logistics. Fuel and energy supplies in Europe are suffering as a result of the political atmosphere.
The production of raw materials such as steel which are imported from Germany is both slow and unreliable.
Further to the raw material availability issues and surging energy costs, logistics are unreliable and transport prices have gone up alarmingly.
Light at the end of the tunnel
While the situation may seem dire and cause most of us to worry and doubt, there are some up-sides for a small, open economy like South Africa (and particularly for the poultry industry).
The South African agriculture industry has become an even more essential global resource and is set for growth in 2023, even if that margin is not as high as we would like it to be.
More and more people are switching to poultry as their main protein / meat source.
With some careful planning the worst effects of the overall crisis can be mitigated significantly.
Poultry 2023 Survival Guide
- Be prepared for the increase in demand.
- Be mindful of loadshedding times and adjust working hours accordingly.
- Be mindful of increased transport costs and opt to order (or ship) larger quantities at a time, rather than transporting multiple smaller quantities.
- Be prepared for the increase in lead-times on replenishable and disposable essential industry tools, blades, slicers, and knives. This means anticipating your needs well in advance and placing larger, single orders, sooner rather than later.
- Buy higher quality consumable blades and tooling parts to ensure longer sharp-life and fewer replacements. With loadshedding already causing so many delays, you don’t need additional down-time.
- Communicate with our sales people. If you have any issues (even those which don’t seem solvable) let us know. We are aware of the current pressures and are actively working with our customers to find flexible and innovative solutions to your concerns.
Engage with us in regard to any cutting tools which you do not already source from Renlaw and see how our prices and quality compare. Renlaw is dedicated to problem solving with our customers.