Local farmers have expressed shock over China’s decision to maintain the ban on exporting sheep wool from South Africa.
The ban was imposed on South Africa’s wool exports earlier this year in April due to an outbreak of foot and mouth disease in parts of the country. But now the farming sector says that there is no disease present in their registered wool producing facilities countrywide.
National Wool Growers Association General Manager Leon De Beer says a failure of the government to act could lead to devastating consequences for the industry’s workers and small-scale producers.
De Beer says, “The Chinese authorities have put a ban on exports from South Africa from all products that come from cloven-hooved animals and that includes wool, so that is where we stand at the moment and that is the situation. Our next auction for this season is the 17th of August so that puts us in dire straits as 70% to 80% of the national clip of 5 million kilograms is exported to China.”
De Beer’s full interview on Lotus Fm’s Newsbreak programme:
Agri Eastern Cape concerned about impact of foot-and-mouth disease outbreak:
