South Africa’s chicken imports remain unpredictable in 2025, with high volumes of offal and MDM driving growth while bird flu continues to limit supplies from the US and EU.
Whither chicken imports in 2025? It’s anybody’s guess.
From a peak in 2018, chicken imports declined steadily until 2022, then rose in the following two years. It will be many months before we know whether the increase is likely to continue in 2025, or whether import volumes will once again drop back.
The January import statistics were no help. Chicken imports in January 2025 were higher than in December last year, but below import volumes in January 2024.
That contradiction gives little indication of the direction imports will take this year.
What was apparent were continuing high import levels of chicken offal and MDM, a paste used in the production of processed meats such as polony. Those two categories make up 90% of South Africa’s chicken imports.
Most of the January increase was attributable to these two products. MDM, which comprised 68% of chicken imports, rose 18% on a monthly basis while offal (23% of imports) rose 8%.
Both products are supplied principally by Brazil, and contributed to the monthly increase in Brazilian imports. Volumes from the European Union and the United States declined. This is the result of the ravages of bird flu, which continues its spread in the northern hemisphere’s winter months.
Brazil has remained free of bird flu, and its share of South Africa’s chicken imports increased to 87% in January. The EU, once a dominant force, was down at 4%.
