How time flies! As I sat down to write this piece, it was the first day of August. The date may not be of significance to you, but this will largely depend on whether you have been counting down the time, waiting for a Ministerial promise to a domestic industry to be fulfilled.

If it all sounds a bit Greek or, should I say, Latin, let me simply say gallus domesticus. To get the full picture, you might want to re-read two articles previously published in this column. The first, titled ‘Root cause of food inflation’, was published on September 2, 2022, and the second, titled ‘Chickenomics’, on August 19, 2022.

If you are chicken (just joking) or if it is simply too painful to invest another minute, let me remind you by recapping part of the September 2, 2022, article: “Trade, Industry and Competition Minister Ebrahim Patel decided to delay by 12 months the imposition of antidumping duties on frozen chicken originating in or imported from Brazil, Denmark, Ireland, Poland and Spain.”

I commented at the time: “Curiously, he decided to retain antidumping duties on Germany, the Netherlands, the UK and the US. The reason for the delay was that this was being done ‘in an effort to reduce food inflation’. So, don’t imports from the nonexcluded countries contribute to food inflation, or could it be that all chickens are equal, but some are more equal than others?”

In case you are interested in the actual wording of the August 5, 2022, Government Gazette notice, which itself was an amendment of a notice published on August 1, 2022, it stated: “The Minister approved the International Trade Administration Commission of South Africa (Itac) recommendation. However, in making his decision, the Minister considered the current rapid rise in food prices in the Southern African Customs Union (Sacu) market and globally and the significant impact this has, especially on the poor, as well as the impact that the imposition of the antidumping duties may have on the price of chicken as one of the more affordable protein sources. “The Minister, therefore, decided to suspend the imposition of the antidumping duties for a period of 12 months or a shorter period of time, depending on the prevailing circumstances at the time. “Should circumstances in 12 months’ time warrant the extension of the implementation date, the Minister will undertake timeous consultations with affected parties before doing so.”

Obviously, 12 months have passed, and I am not aware of any consultation that has taken place. But then I am not in the industry. That said, one would have expected media reports on consultations having been initiated. As for food inflation, STANLIB noted in a report published on July 20: “South Africa’s food prices were up 14.4% year-on-year in March 2023, the highest rate of food inflation since March 2009. Food inflation has since eased to 12%, but this is still well above target. Food is the biggest single component of the consumer price index, accounting for over 15% of the basket.”

As to what the root cause of South Africa’s food inflation is, my September 2, 2002, article quotes the US Department of Agriculture’s Foreign Agricultural Service as saying that “food price inflation was exacerbated in South Africa by ongoing loadshedding, or prolonged power outages, which have increased costs along the supply chain”.

Just in case you take issue with this article’s title, as you have now digested (no pun intended), let me point out that the main difference between a fowl and a chicken is that a fowl is a superorder of birds, and a chicken is a domesticated fowl – hence gallus domesticus. Thus, a chicken is essentially a subcategory of fowls, but not all fowls are chickens.

But, by not imposing the antidumping duties, is it a case of chickening out? Or will the antidumping duties be imposed with retrospective effect? Only Sacu does not impose antidumping duties retrospectively. Tick-tock, goes the clock . . .