An economic action plan to sustain South Africa’s poultry industry has been proposed by FairPlay founder Francois Baird.
The proposals are based on the 10-point plan put forward by President Cyril Ramaphosa. In an article in the Afrikaans publication Landbouweekblad, Baird said six of the president’s 10 points related directly to relieving what he termed a government “assault” on the poultry industry.
“Poultry is the largest agricultural sector, employing more than 100,000 people, mostly in rural South Africa and which produces 66% of all the meat consumed by South Africans,” Baird said.
“If the domestic poultry industry collapses, so too will the grain industry, the local economies in rural areas taking those municipalities with it, rural small businesses and so on. This chain reaction will result in collapsed rural economies and mass unemployment.”
Unless fixed, worsening child stunting rates of 28.8% and malnutrition death rates could implode the nation, beyond rescue.
FairPlay’s poultry economic action proposal covered the following areas:
- Energy affordability: All poultry farmers should have cheaper, more reliable electricity. High prices and the need for back-up generation raised the cost of producing more affordable chicken, and had driven many small-scale farmers out of business.
- Transport infrastructure: Ensure affordable and reliable rural rail and road transport. Potholed roads and unreliable rail drove up chicken feed and other production costs.
- Water infrastructure: Fix small town and rural water infrastructure, especially where poultry was produced to feed the nation.
- Rural development: Enable growth in rural economies by helping poultry producers to survive and grow. Poultry, produced in rural areas, was the starting point for economic growth.
- Bird flu vaccination and culling compensation: While the poultry industry had invested R2.2 billion in extra capacity, and created thousands of jobs, the government refused compensation for chickens it ordered culled during bird flu outbreaks, and had launched an ineffective and expensive bird flu vaccination programme, currently only at one site.
- Ending predatory and unfair trade: The DTIC has granted the United States a concession that allowed it to dump 72 000 tonnes of American chicken in South Africa every year “risking the South African chicken industry for nothing in return”.
- A return to impartial bird flu protocols: The DTIC and the agriculture department had also surrendered their sovereignty by allowing the US government to decide for itself when and from where its chicken could be exported to South Africa after bird flu outbreaks.
FairPlay suggested a few things that the President’s economic “war room” could get done immediately.
- Make chicken VAT-free – needed now more than ever to help poor and malnourished households,
- Compensate poultry farmers for culling at government direction to contain bird flu,
- Implement a simple and effective poultry vaccination programme,
- Prevent chicken dumping in South Africa by applying WTO rules and apply proper import protocols,
- Provide a cheap, reliable electricity supply for large and small poultry and chicken feed producers,
- Prioritise the restoration of reliable and affordable water supply in chicken-producing rural towns,
- Fix rural roads and direct Transnet to provide poultry and chicken feed producers with lower rates and reliable transport,
- Abandon the unnecessary and expensive poultry Competition Commission lawfare.
“These emergency chicken economy actions will serve all South Africans and go a long way to reviving the entire South African economy,” Baird concluded.
