On behalf of the local poultry industry, SAPA said the decision “is a positive move towards ending dumping and unfair trade practices. This move also supports the implementation of trade measures endorsed and supported by all signatories to the Poultry Sector master plan.”
SAPA’s Izaak Breitenbach said in an interview with the TV news channel eNCA that there were “a lot of positives” for the industry now that the duties were being imposed.
“These duties will put the industry in a position to grow again. They will put us in a position to invest in the industry, to create jobs and to grow the value chain.”
Breitenbach pointed out that, while dumped chicken imports came in at very low prices, consumers never benefited because imported chicken sold at market prices.
He said the impact of the new duties on retail chicken prices would be “marginal”.
The industry statement said that, while dumped chicken imports created jobs in other countries, South Africa’s chicken producers had created more than 1888 jobs throughout the integrated value-chain since the poultry master plan was signed in 2019.
The industry had grown from a R50 billion to a R59 billion strategic national asset, investing more than R2.1 billion in growth, expansion, transformation and upgrades.
“All this while subsidising and absorbing the impact of production costs as load shedding and record high global soft commodity prices and poultry feed prices decimated industry profitability.
“The industry will always be sensitive to the impact of food price inflation on the consumer, and firmly supports the production of affordable protein and local food security,” SAPA said.
