A serious crisis is looming for observant Johannesburg Jews, as the supply of kosher meat dwindles way below the demand, due to factors difficult to control. This will be particularly sorely felt as Rosh Hashanah approaches. “We’re holding in the short term,” says UOS exec director Sevitz about supply, by making more use of the other facilities. The UOS is pulling all the stops to find a new facility, but has had no complaints from consumers regarding supply shortages...yet!
Yaakov Lazarus, of Moishe’s and Trevor’s Kosher Butchery - one of the main suppliers of Mehadrin kosher meat - told the Jewish Report: “At the end of June we got an e-mail from the Morgan Group - the biggest throughput abattoir from which we get almost 100 per cent of our meat, except for another smaller supplier at Wolwehoek for lamb - that they can’t do kosher slaughter anymore.
“They said this was a result of a new requirement from a certain halaal authority (the National Independent Halaal Trust), saying that on the processing line there needs to be an hour’s interval between when kosher slaughter is done, and then halaal slaughter begins.
“And in addition, kosher and halaal meat can’t be stored in the same fridge. This applies not only to Mehadrin, but other kosher meat too.”
Lazarus says Morgan came to a business decision that continuing with kosher slaughter was not good business because the Jewish market is much smaller than the Muslim market and the Muslim business must not be lost.
“I don’t think it’s a political issue,” he says. But this was an unfortunate new development, because Muslims and Jews had previously worked well together on meat and similar issues where they had a common interest, he said.
Lazarus has approached other abattoirs, but the need is for a place with a large capacity. “It will be very difficult to find another abattoir with the same throughput,” he says. “So, meat prices will increase and other abattoirs are raising prices by 20 per cent because they know we have a supply problem.”
One of the problems is that for kosher slaughter a specially designed “box” is needed - EXAMPLE ILLUSTRATED RIGHT - which was agreed with animal rights groups - to place the animal in the proper position for the shochet to do his job.
A single clean cut is required for the meat to be kosher. If the animal moves its head, the meat will not be kosher.
“To build a new box, we need drawings, steel fabrication and a pneumatic system to open the entry door, push the animal in and position the head correctly. After the rabbi slaughters with one cut, 20 seconds later the cow is stunned, by arrangement with the SPCA. Then another bar lifts the door, and the 500 kilos of weight is moved out. It would cost about R750 000 to build a new box, by a large engineering firm.”
Lazarus feels the Beth Din and the UOS need to get involved. “There needs to be a campaign of awareness; the consumer needs to know why there is a shortage of kosher meat. And they need to ascertain the reason for the new one-hour requirement. Ultimately this needs to be addressed on a political level. Muslims and Jews used to work well together,” he stressed.
UOS says stocks holding out
Darren Sevitz, CEO of the UOS which is the umbrella organisation that includes the Beth Din, told Jewish Report that they were aware of the problem arising from the loss of use of the Morgan facility.
The UOS is working very actively to secure another facility, says Sevitz, and had “purchased a list of every abettor in the country.” They’ve been investigating and he and one of their Shochtim had visited a possible site but with no success.
“We’re holding in the short term,” he says about supply, by making more use of the other facilities. The UOS has spoken to the retail butchers, he says, but they have had no complaints from consumers regarding supply shortages.
The numbers of heads of beef slaughtered for kosher consumption had risen dramatically from about 8 000 in 2010 to around 12 000 in 2013. The UOS had budgeted for a levelling out this year and, says Darren, the numbers to date for 2014 are “what we had expected”.