Chicken is rich in vitamins and other essential nutrients. Making it more affordable would help prevent stunting and malnutrition.
The submission of VAT-free chicken says the current list of VAT-exempt foods contains limited items that are protein-rich (currently included are beans, lentils, pilchards, milk and milk powder, and eggs) and even fewer products that contain healthy fats.
“Chicken does not only contain high volumes of the macro nutrients protein and fat, but also various other micro nutrients imperative to human development, such as iron, vitamin B and magnesium,” it states.
“Chicken is higher in protein than any of the products currently on the zero-rating list. If chicken is more affordable for poor consumers by virtue of the zero-rating, more chicken is likely to be consumed. The increased consumption of chicken should increase people’s ability to reach their daily protein targets, preventing stunting and malnutrition.”
The submission says it appears to be “a significant oversight” that the current list of zero-rated foodstuffs contains no animal proteins, other than pilchards.
Chicken is also one of the cheapest sources of protein. The submission calculated the cost per gram of protein in chicken products, pilchards, pork mince, eggs and beef mince.
Beef mince came out the most expensive, at 60 cents per gram of protein. Pork mince cost 50 cents, and pilchards 42 cents per gram. The cost per gram of chicken products was 44 cents for whole chicken, 41 cents for individually quick frozen (IQF) portions and 23 cents for chicken livers.
“Chicken and pilchards provide consumers with the most protein content per Rand spent. It is noteworthy that pilchards are already zero-rated,” the submission says.
South Africa’s human consumption of chicken had more than trebled from 1991 to 2023 “and currently significantly exceeds the human consumption of red meat”.
