Picture: Western Cape Department of Agriculture
The economic fallout from the foot and mouth disease outbreaks has been one of the hardest blows to deal with.
Agriculture Minister John Steenhuisen shared this at the Foot and Mouth Disease indaba in Pretoria.
The outbreaks—mainly in KZN, Mpumalanga, Gauteng and now the Free State—led to livestock movement bans and major export losses.
Steenhuisen says because South Africa doesn’t have a working regional system, the whole country got penalised, even though the outbreaks were localised.
That hurt red meat trade and cost people their jobs.
Steenhuisen says fixing the damage to our animal health reputation won’t happen overnight.
