South Africa’s poultry producers should take heart from President Cyril Ramaphosa’s drive to boost exports.
Although the poultry industry was not singled out, President Ramaphosa’s reasoning, and the actions outlined in his State of the Nation address, should all apply to chicken exports.
The changing global economy was an opportunity “to ramp up our exports across the globe,” he said.
“We are strengthening our capacity for trade negotiations and expanding our missions abroad to drive economic diplomacy.” This bodes well for poultry producers, as these are areas where a lack of government capacity has hindered the expansion of chicken exports.
“We know that we can create millions of good quality jobs in sectors like agriculture, mining, services and the green economy. These are areas where we can be more than competitive. We can be the best in the world.”
Poultry qualifies here too – the South African poultry industry has just been classified as the second most competitive in the world, behind Brazil, but ahead of the United States and European producers who all get some form of government subsidy.
Praising the agriculture sector, President Ramaphosa said South Africa was opening new markets for agricultural exports, from citrus and avocados to maize, livestock, grapes and wine.
He cannot yet include poultry, because government efforts to open up Europe and Saudi Arabia for chicken exports have been slow, if not dilatory.
That may change with the presidential push for export-led growth.
