Christo van der Rheede, outgoing CEO of AgriSA, has thrown the organisation’s weight behind moves to get the government to reconsider its plan to implement temporary tariff rebates on imported chicken. The rebates could include both general duties and recently imposed anti-dumping duties.
Van der Rheede told ENCA that he had raised the issue with the government, arguing that any move that would “open the floodgates for the dumping of poultry” would have a massive negative impact on the South African poultry industry.
The poultry industry had to contend with power cuts, rising input costs and a range of other factors not within the industry’s control.
Whereas poultry producing competitors in Brazil, the United States and Europe had the full support of their governments “that is not something that we have here,” he said.
“So it can lead to a situation where many poultry producers are going to have to close shop, and the end result of that is massive job losses,” Van der Rheede stated.
