Animal health increasingly important to the economy
....and pets at home too!
2022/10/17
Animal Health is critical for both South Africa's sustainable food production and growing number of companion animals, and it shares many of the challenges faced by the broader healthcare logistics sector.
South Africa account for less than 1% of the global Animal Health market, valued t around $40b - so the opportunity for growth in the country and Africa is significant.
DSV's approach to Animal Health is built around a clear understanding of the requirements for sustainable food production and the welfare and wellbeing of both production and companion animals. We offer a well-regulated and controlled solution to manage scheduled and OTC products in every environment, including cold chain, ambient, hazardous, flammable, diagnostic and feed additive.
Our activity based costs solution provides space, resources and solutions to manufacturers, but allows them to scale up and down without paying for what is not needed. This means that seasonal fluctuations, volume stocking, disease outbreaks, and environmental factors affecting animal health can be accommodated when required, in a shared facility environment, optimizing scale of economy for our animal health customers.
Production animals account for 76% of the local market, and sub-categories include co-operatives, pig and poultry houses, feedlots, feed mills, veterinarians and vet practices, vet wholesalers, laboratories, retail outlets and exports.
Disease is an ever-present threat in the industry, and timelines and deadlines are unforgiving. DSV has a range of preventative and curative strategies in place to deal with outbreaks whose potential for devastation cannot be underestimated - disease in a poultry house can claim upwards of 30,000 birds in a day.
Rural environments with poor road infrastructure need different solutions, including packaging (which is more durable and protects content longer) and COD an POD management, and cold chain packaging solutions have been improved to meet bio-security challenges.
DSV has also developed innovative solutions for feedlots, which require cold chain vehicles, palleted deliveries and unique delivery times. Animal feed-mills run 24 hours a day in some cases, and if a delivery needs to be done after hours to ensure poultry rations are continued this is accommodated within VAS provided.
DSV's bonded warehouse helps us process unregistered products in Africa which need bonded facilities.
Reverse logistics and order / product returns and claims requirements in this environment is extremely complex and each co-op or poultry house has unique needs. We build strong relationships with each organisation's administration team to ensure reverse logistics works smoothly.
Although the companion animal market in South Africa currently accounts for 24% of total revenues, it is growing as people turn to pets for companionship in response to a number of social factors. They range from isolation forced by Covid-19 lockdowns to the negative impact of social media (many online friends, but few physical companions) and changing lifestyle trends - people getting married later, having less children and living longer.
While the market have some similarities with production animals, it has its unique challenges too.
Orders for vaccines and medicines are primarily for delivery to main centers and practices and quick turnaround times are a common expectation. While many vets and vet practices have unique order and delivery needs, the companion animal business is relatively easier to manage.
Our animal health services are designed to meet the different needs of the two broad markets, and the sub-categories within the markets.
Leading-edge facilities provide the foundation for world class service
DSV's Healthcare facility in Meadowview allows you to provide a highly regulated and automated solution cold chain and Act 101 scheduled product ranges, a well as the diagnostic ranges.
The Raceway facility offers a highly regulated yet more flexible manual solution to manage the larger dips and feed additive products, and the fire store was built specifically for Animal Health client requirements and reflects DSV's commitment to the industry.
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