Chicken importers get things wrong, repeatedly. And their mouthpiece, ChickenFacts, can be a little short on facts.
In their latest attack on FairPlay over the retention of general tariffs on chicken imports, ChickenFacts went into a long argument about the impact on poultry producers of the 2022 bird flu outbreak.
Fact: That outbreak was, in fact, in 2023.
Then they claim that FairPlay’s arguments for tariffs show a disregard for poor consumers, because a decade of tariffs has kept chicken prices high.
Fact: Tariffs have enabled South African producers to recover from a flood of dumped chicken, to invest in expanded capacity and to use economies of scale to provide South African consumers with the second-cheapest chicken in the world.
Fact: South African poultry producers have supplied the country with affordable meat protein for decades.
Fact: The tariffs are necessary to protect the South African poultry industry against unfair competition.
Fact: Foreign poultry producers are heavily subsidised, directly or indirectly. South African producers enjoy no subsidies.
Fact: Importers’ professed concern for poor people is contradicted by the fact that they don’t pass on low import prices to consumers – instead imported chicken is sold at market prices and importers make fat profits.
Importers argue, with seeming logic, that a country producing cheap chicken should not be afraid of imports.
Fact: The general tariffs are in place because South Africa’s trade regulator, ITAC, has recognised the facts outlined above. It has recommended tariffs because chicken imports were harming the local industry’s profitability by price suppression – producers cannot raise prices when input costs rise, and without profitability they cannot invest, expand and create jobs.
Fact: Removing the general tariffs, as advocated by chicken importers, would harm the local industry, threaten its profitability and reduce or eliminate its capacity to create jobs.
Fact: It is importers who would benefit most from the removal of tariffs, not consumers. That is why they argue so loudly that tariffs must go.
