The South African poultry industry intends applying for an end to a duty-free quota for chicken imports from the United States.
The quota has allowed thousands of tonnes of US chicken portions to enter South Africa free of R9.40/kg anti-dumping duties that would otherwise have applied.
The quota was forced on South Africa by the US in 2016 as a condition of renewing South Africa’s trade befits under the African Growth and Opportunities Act (AGOA) legislation.
However, says Izaak Breitenbach of the SA Poultry Association, the quota is in turn conditional on there being no loss of South Africa’s AGOA trade benefits. He told the Afrikaans-language agricultural weekly Landbouweekblad that the new tariffs the US was imposing on South Africa should nullify the chicken import quota.
“We interpret the recently announced new tariffs against South Africa as affecting the AGOA benefits,” he said. “We will thus ask the International Trade Administration Commission (ITAC) to withdraw the duty-free import quota”.
Removing the quota would not have a huge effect on the amount of US chicken imports at the moment, because widespread bird flu outbreaks have caused a rapid decline in US chicken exports to South Africa.
However, previously high import volumes show what could happen should the US be able to bring bird flu outbreaks under control.
The imposition of the quota caused a huge increase in US chicken imports to South Africa. They rose from the pre-quota 331 tonnes in 2015 to 69 000 tonnes in 2017 and 82 000 tonnes in 2019. Since then, bird flu outbreaks have resulted in a steady decline.
The quota in the year to March 2024 was just under 72 000 tonnes, but US imports were less than half that at 30 00 tonnes. The quota for the year to March 2025 has not yet been announced, but US bone-in imports in the 11 months to February came to only 5 929 tonnes.
In February 2025, no chicken at all was imported from the US.
The quota would in any case fall away if South Africa is removed as an AGOA beneficiary later this year, or if the agreement is cancelled altogether. However, Breitenbach said the US might seek to revive the duty-free chicken quota in future negotiations over a bilateral trade deal with South Africa.
