This is the picture painted in the latest 10-year agricultural projections from the independent Bureau for Food and Agricultural Policy. The BFAP stresses that its agricultural outlook is not a forecast, but an analysis of what could happen.
It says the competitiveness of South Africa’s poultry industry has improved, but it is being hampered by high feed costs, which affect producers worldwide, and by local factors such as persistent power cuts and failing municipal and national infrastructure.
This would limit the extent to which local chicken producers could replace imports, one of the objectives of the country’s poultry master plan.
“Consequently, imports are still expected to account for 19% of total consumption by 2032, from 21% on average between 2020 and 2022,” the BFAP says.
The good news is that local production will increase in the years to come, as the country consumes more chicken. Chicken will account for most of the country’s additional meat consumption over the next decade.
