South Africa’s 2025 chicken imports are trending lower than last year, and the two-month ban on Brazilian poultry products may ensure that imports for 2025 as a whole end up below the 2024 total.
The latest official statistics, for May 2025, show that chicken imports for the first five months of the year were 20% lower than the previous year.
Statistics for the next three months – June, July and August – are likely to record further declines because of the ban on Brazil imports, effective from the start of May to 4 July.
Importers say the shipping time from Brazil is eight weeks, and that the first consignments after the ban was lifted will arrive in early September.
Nearly 90% of South Africa’s chicken imports are mechanically deboned meat (MDM) and offal products such as chicken heads, feet and livers. MDM is a paste used in the production of processed meats such as polony and sausages.
From a peak in 2018, chicken imports dropped steadily until 2022. The decline was arrested by two years of increases, 11% in 2023 and 0.2% in 2024.
Now, unless there’s a huge surge later in the year, the decline looks set to resume.
