Australia has limited poultry imports by applying strict health requirements rather than import duties, explains David Wolpert, who used to oversee South Africa’s chicken imports.
I spent 10 years as CEO of the Association of Meat Importers and Exporters (AMIE), which was a great privilege for me.
Much of my time was devoted to opposing a long string of applications from local poultry aimed at levying various tariffs on imports. I fought these applications vigorously, as I believed fervently in anti-protectionist measures.
I have spent the last 18 months in Australia, and have clearly seen the other side of the coin, and how essential a successful and vibrant local poultry industry is to the overall health of the economy, as well as to employment creation and sustained growth.
Australia has some of the strictest biosecurity and quarantine measures in the world to protect its agriculture and environment from pests and disease. These stringent measures apply particularly to poultry products so that diseases such as Avian Influenza and Newcastle disease are not given any opportunity to be imported, and so possibly pose risks to local poultry.
Due to the very strict and costly phyto-sanitary measures, importation of fresh and frozen chicken is eliminated, without the use of punitive duties.
Australia allows the importation of cooked chicken from New Zealand because NZ has similar disease-free status and rigorous biosecurity standards. Cooking also eliminates any potential pathogens and enables safe importation.
The Trans-Tasman trade relationship between Australia and New Zealand supports this arrangement.
Australia is thus able to sustain a vibrant, healthy domestic poultry industry which minimises imports without imposing high tariffs. The lack of tariffs also plays a major role in keeping consumer prices down.
There is no suggestion herein for South Africa to replicate the Australian policies, and many valid arguments exist for the maintenance of a robust chicken import programme. Conversely, the Australian approach of avoiding duties by implementing policy based upon strict sanitary controls, does play a hugely positive economic role, encouraging job creation in tandem with economic growth.
It is worth pointing out that reliable sources reflect South African chicken consumption at around 35 kg per person per year, with Australia at least 10kg per person higher.
Chicken plays a huge role in the supply of affordable and nutritious protein in both countries, and its consumption is influenced by price, availability, and cultural preferences.
It is imperative that a profitable and sustainable poultry supply be a permanent feature of any country’s economic policies.
South Africa’s unemployment rate is sitting around 33% with an expanded rate which includes discouraged job seekers who have given up searching for a job, at a frightening level of 42%. These are, by some distance, the highest in the world.
South Africa’s national debt to GDP ratio is hovering around a staggering 80%.
Both of these statistics are unsustainable for ongoing meaningful economic growth to be guaranteed. Ways and means need to be found to substantially improve them to acceptable levels. Not an easy task.
The easiest and most cost-effective way is to develop policies that encourage local industry to thrive and grow. This will create jobs and grow spending in the domestic economy, thus also preserving essential foreign exchange funds. This has a domino effect on other industries.
None of this can be realistically achieved without the risk-free existence
of a healthy, ever growing, local poultry sector. It is South Africa’s duty and responsibility to ensure this with great resolve and commitment.
