The South African government attributes the 52 930 jobs retained by the poultry industry in recent years to the success of the first phase of the country’s poultry master plan.
Engineering News reported that the statistics were produced at a briefing by the two government departments involved in the master plan, the Department of Trade, Industry and Competition and the Department of Agriculture.
Phase 1 of the poultry master plan went from 2019, when the plan was first signed, to 2024. Phase 2 is now being developed.
Officials said that the first phase of the plan had helped to garner R2.02 billion of investment by major companies in the sector since the plan’s inception in 2019, against South African Poultry Association’s target of R1.5 billion.
These investments included R1.2 billion through the Industrial Development Corporation and the Department of Agriculture’s industrial fund, which supported 14 poultry projects.
The Land Bank also approved two projects valued at R31 million, while the Comprehensive Agricultural Support Programme has backed 42 initiatives aimed at empowering small-scale farmers.
“During a meeting where government officials presented the progress on the Master Plan on February 21, stakeholders reaffirmed the need for ongoing trade protection to counteract unfair competition posed by poultry imports, to ensure the sustainability of local producers,” Engineering News reported.
“Discussions during the meeting also focused on expanding exports, improving affordability and strengthening biosecurity measures to mitigate against disease outbreaks.”
Under Phase 2 of the Master Plan, a further R635 million in investment has already been committed toward increasing local production.
“The plan mentions some of the urgent challenges facing the sector as being cost of feed, scale of production, inability to export and transformation imperatives.”
The poultry sector comprises 973 farms, of which about 680 are large commercial-scale farms, Engineering News reported.
