General Interest

As Kevin Lovell pointed out in his insightful article “Brazilian chickens threaten poultry industry jobs” (Business Report, July 3) the South African poultry industry is in crisis. In Lovell’s view the crisis has been caused by cheap Brazilian imports and to some extent this is true.  However, he trod lightly around the real elephant in the room. Fully 70 % of the cost of raising chickens lies in the feed, of which yellow maize is the prime ingredient, making the poultry industry one of the country’s largest consumers. However the government failed to prevent all our stocks of maize from being sold to overseas customers at prices, I understand, of about R1 400 a ton.  As this maize is leaving our shore additional stocks are being frantically imported, primarily to feed the chickens.  The cost of the imported maize is around R2 600 a ton. If my numbers are correct, then imposing tariffs on Brazilian chicken will do no good at all as exploding input costs will continue to make local chicken more expensive. The government must step in quickly to subsidise the cost of imported maize. It must also agree on ways of reserving local maize in future for the poultry industry at reasonable prices. There is literally no time to waste. James Cunningham, Cape Times. 5 July 2012

The Parmesan cheese Industry near Bologna took a hit in the recent magnitude 6 earthquake. Over 300,000 cheese wheels were damaged or destroyed as the special storage racks fell over like giant dominoes. This is a disaster for a local industry which has been making this distinctive cheese for over 400 years.But the risks of such a disaster can be substantially decreased by using mobile racking, especially if the bases are fitted with anti- tip technology. Storax Racking Systems, for example, had a system close to the epicentre of the last Chilean quake. It survived with minor damage, mainly caused by falling roof panels, while other fixed racking systems collapsed even though they were a lot further from the epicentre. This is a hidden advantage of mobiles which should not be underestimated in earthquake prone areas.

Barpro has come across several incidents of frost heave recently in South African freezer stores. So what is frost heave?  It happens when water freezes under a cold store and pushes up the floor. There doesn’t have to be a lot of water and the temperature only needs to drop slightly below freezing point. When water or moisture freezes it expands and the expansion has to go somewhere, which is up.  As mobile racking requires a level floor any frost heave is a major problem. I have seen freezer floors come up by almost 1 metre due to frost heave, and, the longer the problem is left, the worse it tends to get. How do you prevent frost heave from happening? Be aware of frost heave and what it can do. Understand how your freezer store is designed to prevent frost heave and then make sure that these defences are working. Most freezer stores have heater mats. Know where the control panel is, make sure it is working, and check the temp under the heater mat on a regular basis. If you use other methods like pumping warm glycol under the freezer floor, make sure that the glycol is flowing. UK freezer stores have flow indicators on each loop for this purpose. If your store has air vents under the freezer floor, make sure these vents are not blocked. The 1 metre frost heave in the freezer store referred to earlier was caused when a new manager noticed that rats liked to use the under floor vent pipes, so, unaware of the dangers, he blocked the vents. Remember, frost heave is very difficult to cure once the process has begun. And it doesn’t only happen in freezer stores. I have also witnessed an incident in a chill store……   Other things you can do to guard against frost heave. Get the electric heater mat supplier to check the mat’s performance on an annual basis. Get a Barpro technician to take floor levels at the same time as he is doing the annual maintenance inspection on the Storax bases. If this is done every year, you can quickly  see any changes in floor level. If you do, don’t leave it but take action  immediately.