As South Africa lifts its bird flu ban on Brazilian poultry, FairPlay has warned that the country must be on high alert due to Brazil’s troubling history of food safety lapses, labour abuses, and criminal activity linked to chicken exports.
The resumption of chicken imports from Brazil after a bird flu ban means that South Africa must be extra vigilant about threats to food security and food safety. The warning comes from FairPlay founder Francois Baird.
“Brazil’s poultry producers have had notable – and horrific – lapses in food safety, particularly relating to chicken exports,” Baird said in a statement.
“There have also been questions about their labour and environmental practices, while chicken consignments have been used for cocaine smuggling. We need extreme vigilance to ensure there are no repetitions,” Baird stated.
Brazil is the world’s second largest chicken producer and the largest exporter of poultry meat. More than 80% of South Africa’s poultry imports come from Brazil.
Following a bird flu outbreak, South Africa banned all Brazilian poultry imports from 1 May 2025. That ban was lifted on 4 July, and the first consignments are expected in South Africa in late August or early September.
“When these shipments arrive, South Africa must be on high alert,” Baird said.
“The agriculture department should not need reminding about Brazil’s “weak flesh” food safety scandal in 2017. That year, South Africa was among multiple countries that applied temporary bans on Brazilian poultry imports because of a scandal that made world headlines.”
The bans followed an announcement by Brazilian authorities that managers at more than 30 Brazilian companies had bribed health officials to get export certificates for meat that was contaminated or spoiled.
Among the allegations investigated by police was that export documents were falsified and that chemicals were used to mask the smell of tainted meat.
The meat companies, including two of Brazil’s largest, denied the allegations, but senior officials were arrested as countries including China and the European Union refused to accept Brazilian meat.
The meat scandal was followed by a Brazilian labour scandal. In December 2018 a US-based research company released a report alleging that thousands of people were victims of forced labour and inhumane work conditions in Brazil’s booming meat and poultry industries.
Slave labour in Brazil’s poultry sector was “endemic”, said the report by the Washington-based Institute for Agriculture and Trade Policy (IATP).
Then in 2019, the EU imposed a six-month ban on Brazilian poultry imports after an inspection found the food poisoning bug salmonella in export products. Salmonella was again found in Brazilian chicken sent to the Netherlands last year.
Brazilian poultry shipments to South Africa have also been vehicles for cocaine smuggling, an international investigation found in 2023. Drug consignments were found in containers of frozen chicken in South Africa and Brazil.
Brazilian meat producers have also been accused of environmental damage in the Amazon basin. Last year, Brazil’s environmental agency fined 23 meatpacking companies and their suppliers for buying and selling cattle raised illegally on deforested land in the Amazon. Cattle raising is the main driver of deforestation in the Brazilian Amazon, Associated Press reported. As recently as two months ago, The Guardian revealed that Brazilian meat companies may break Amazon deforestation pledges again.
“These reports of safety, labour, environmental and ethical lapses involve the huge Brazilian producers supplying chicken products to South Africa. If South Africa allows Brazil to manage its own bird flu export restrictions, as it has already done for the United States, then these companies will be self-declaring the safety of their meat exports.
“South Africa should not grant that concession to Brazil. We need to take extra care that we do not import bird flu from Brazil. The authorities should similarly be super watchful on the safety of South Africa’s chicken imports from that country.
“Brazilian imports are targeted and consumed mostly by our poorest communities where we have had significant public health crises, ranging from listeriosis to insecticide poisoning as a result of compromised food being sold to the poor. We should not and must not outsource our food safety to another country, and especially where it creates a conflict of interest.
“We must ensure that Brazil complies with all import and safety regulations, including certificates of origin, tariff classification, traceability, packaging and labelling of their chicken products.
“To adapt a famous saying, the price of food safety is eternal vigilance.” Baird stated.
