South Africa’s poultry trade policy faces growing pressure as US and Brazilian exporters push to dismantle the country’s import tariffs and anti-dumping duties.
Key takeaways:
- Tariffs under pressure: Brazilian exporters and local importers are pushing to dismantle South Africa’s chicken import tariffs and anti-dumping duties.
- US deal risks chain reaction: If US negotiators successfully pressure South Africa to drop MFN tariffs alongside duty-free quotas, Brazil and other trade partners will demand equal treatment.
- Protection vs profits: Local producers and government view tariffs as vital defence against job-threatening dumping, while importers frame them as overly protectionist.
Brazil’s poultry exporters are gearing up for a fight over South African import tariffs on Brazilian poultry – and South Africa’s chicken importers are gearing up to support them.
The United States is waging the same fight, and the Brazilians will be watching with interest. If the US manages to add an exemption from general tariffs to an extended quota free of anti-dumping duties, expect the Brazilians to demand equal treatment.
Since 2023, Brazil has been subject to anti-dumping duties on its exports to South Africa of bone-in portions such as chicken leg quarters. In addition, Brazilian poultry is subject to general import tariffs, ranging from 30% to 82%.
South Africa was criticised for this last week at an international conference arranged by Brazil’s meat producers. In 2025, Brazil accounted for 85% of South Africa’s chicken imports.
Ricardo Santin, president of the Brazilian Association of Animal Protein (ABPA) defended his country’s chicken exports in an interview at the conference with South Africa’s Sunday Times. He contended that Brazil’s exports supplemented supplies to the South African market by local chicken producers, and were not predatory.
“They say we harm their business, and this is not true,” Santin said.
This is not what South African government investigations have found. The anti-dumping duties were imposed precisely because a government agency found that Brazilian bone-in chicken portions were being exported to South Africa at unfairly low prices, threatening local poultry producers and local jobs.
General tariffs are separate from, and in addition to, anti-dumping duties. General tariffs, known as Most Favoured Nation or MFN tariffs, were increased in 2013 and again in 2020 because multiple countries, including Brazil, were doing the same with other chicken products.
Now those MFN tariffs, which apply to about a third of South Africa’s chicken imports, are in the firing line because US trade negotiators are demanding that they be removed from US chicken exports, together with a huge quota of US bone-in chicken free from anti-dumping duties.
If the US gets its way – South Africa has already conceded the duty-free quota and is under pressure on the additional MFN tariffs – then Brazil and other countries will claim that America is being given an unfair trade advantage. Our chicken should also be free of MFN tariffs, they will say.
They will get noisy support from South African chicken importers., who are members of the Association of Meat Importers and Exporters (AMIE). AMIE executives attended the Brazil conference, and CEO Paul Matthew repeated the AMIE argument that South African chicken tariffs are “protectionist”.
Never mind the evidence of local harm done by dumped chicken imports, It seems that importers will oppose anything that limits chicken imports because every incoming consignment means more money for them.
The first shots at South Africa’s MFN chicken tariffs have been fired by America. It is likely to grow into a wider war over the course of 2026.
MFN tariffs explainer
South Africa’s Most Favoured Nation (MFN) tariffs apply to all countries except the European Union and the United Kingdom, a former EU member, and South Africa’s neighbours in the Southern African Development Community (SADC) countries.
The South African Poultry Association (SAPA) estimates that MFN tariffs apply to about 30% of imported chicken.
After the last increase in 2020, the following MFN tariffs apply to poultry imports into South Africa:
- Offal 30% (unchanged). Offal products include chicken heads, feet and livers. Offal is the second-largest chicken import category. 2025 imports: 103 106 tonnes, R1.06 billion.
- Chicken carcasses 31% (unchanged). 2025 imports: 8 065 tonnes, R63,5 million.
- Boneless portions 42% (previously 12%). 2025 imports: 1 214 tonnes, R38.6 million
- Bone-in portions 62% (previously 37%.) Bone-in portions such as chicken leg quarters, drumsticks and wings, are the third-largest chicken import product. 2025 imports: 50 000 tonnes, R1.17 billion.
- Whole frozen chicken 82% (unchanged). 2025 imports: 2 573 tonnes, R66.8 million.
The largest chicken import category is mechanically deboned meat, or MDM, which comes in tariff free. MDM is a paste used in the production of processed meats such as sausages and polony. 2025 imports: 205 295 tonnes, R2.24 billion.
