Johannesburg to Dubai flights are impacted due to the war in the Middle East, as Karoo lamb must reach clients in Amman, Jordan, within 96 hours of the time of slaughter.

Ordinarily, the abattoir in the south-eastern Free State manages to complete the whole supply chain in 72 hours. Recently, as war spread across the Middle East and Iran retaliated with missiles and drones in the Gulf states, none of the abattoir’s exports flew out to Dubai. 

Backlog

“It caused a serious backlog as we’ve managed to only fly out 30 tonnes, we’re in a spot of bother with our shipments to Amman, we’re all trying to get meat out, and it’s a real problem,” said Pieter Joubert, managing director of Driefontein Abattoir in Bethulie.

He said sometimes flights are on and then cancelled again when a drone hits Dubai. It is problematic when cargo is loaded and offloaded more than once because of the increase in fuel. 

To cope with the growing demand for time-sensitive products, charter flights are planned to fly directly to Amman, but at significantly increased costs.

Flights to the Jordanian capital are impacted by the war. Photo: Pexel

“We haven’t heard yet of any charters that have left the OR Tambo International Airport. I know there is a plan to allocate about 100 tonnes, which will resolve the current backlog, but it could cost as much as $5 per kilo, compared with the $2 to $2.50 per kilo it costs under normal circumstances.” 

He said the current situation was placing a serious strain on Driefontein’s finely tuned reefer process required for exports to Jordan, from cold chain treatment overnight to getting loaded at 05:00 the next morning by Hestony Transport, getting exports to OR Tambo by the evening, and out to Dubai on the first available flight.

A product that misses the 96-hour regulations is fed back into the local market. Photo: Pexel

“We started about three to four years ago. Although we do mostly lamb, we also do beef. We used to ship to Qatar and Kuwait as well, but those markets have been lost because of foot and mouth disease.”

According to data by the Red Meat Industry Services (RMIS), South African sheep meat exports surged 84.6% to 11 400 tonnes in 2024, with the Middle East absorbing 93% of lamb volumes.

Joubert said exports sitting at OR Tambo and not making the 96-hour sanitary regulation that South Africa has with Jordan would mean the product would be fed into the local market.

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OFM Agri/Isabel van Tonder dg