Cape Town — The Department of Agriculture announced that Saudi Arabia is set to begin importing South African beef again after a 20-year ban was lifted on the country’s meat imports.
The ban was originally imposed following an outbreak of foot and mouth disease in South Africa. The department said Saud Arabia will receive their first shipments of halaal products in the coming weeks, SABC News reported.
This development follows a recent visit by a business delegation to South Africa and the facilitation of discussions on the resumption of meat exports to the Middle Eastern nation by the department.
According to the Department’s Director-General Dipepeneneng Serage, he was optimistic about the progress made and emphasised the department’s commitment to ensuring compliance and quality standards for meat exports to Saudi Arabia. He said corrective measures are implemented to ensure any shortcomings are indentified in the auditing process.
The kingdom’s Food and Drug Administration lifted a 20-year prohibition on South African meat imports in August, and final approvals to start shipments of halaal cuts to the Middle Eastern nation are now in place, News24 reported.
“Saudi Arabia has a $2 billion meat market, and lifting the ban is part of its efforts to forge stronger trade and investment ties as it seeks to diversify its $1.1 trillion economy away from oil.,” Matthew Karan from Karan Beef said.
Saudi Arabia is among five new countries to join Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa as a new BRICS member and one of the aims is to increase trade and investment between members.
Pharmaceuticals and technology are other areas of potential cooperation between South Africa and Saudi Arabia. Durban-based Aspen Pharmacare to work with Saudi companies on endocrine and anaesthetic products, Aspen’s Stavros Nicolaou, said.
“The push for exporting beef and lamb products into Saudi Arabia has opened up conversations for other agricultural products including poultry,” Nicolaou said.
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Compiled by Matthew Petersen
