The Association of Meat Importers and Exporters (AMIE) are prolific importers of chicken. Strangely, they seem less keen on the potentially lucrative business of chicken exports.
AMIE members have been silent on what, if anything, they are doing to sell more South African chicken in foreign markets.
AMIE should be working hard to promote chicken exports, not least because it could be very profitable. The association is a signatory to the 2019 poultry master plan and the revised version signed this year. The Phase 2 plan puts an even higher priority on a rapid expansion of chicken exports.
Yet, in his frequent statements recently on meat export problems, AMIE CEO Paul Matthew has focused on issues affecting red meat, such as oxtail from Brazil. He makes no mention of the fact that the bureaucratic obstacles to red meat exports also affect South African chicken.
Matthew would have us believe that low chicken export volumes in recent years are all the fault of the poultry industry. Yet beef producers are in an “export paralysis”, hamstrung by a shortage of state veterinarians, port inefficiencies and insufficient government support in securing export agreements.
Where is AMIE’s voluble opposition to similar problems affecting poultry exports? Where is its support for increased market access for chicken in Europe and the Middle East? Does its offer to partner with government to provide additional resources where state capacity is stretched apply only to beef exports?
If its signature on the revised poultry master plan means anything, AMIE should stop sniping from the sidelines and show that really is prepared to help sell chicken abroad.
