The International Trade Administration Commission of South Africa (Itac) said it would make a final determination regarding the South African Poultry Association’s (Sapa’s) application for increased import duties on chicken meat at its next meeting on July 9.

This was the outcome of a meeting in mid-June to evaluate submissions made by Sapa and those opposing its application, including the Association of Meat Importers and Exporters (Amie), as well as food importers Merlog Foods and the Boxer supermarket chain.

Itac concluded that further in-depth analysis of the submissions was required and indicated that a recommendation would be made to Trade and Industry Minister Dr Rob Davies after the July 9 meeting.

Sapa sought an increase in import duties of up to 82% on a range of categories of frozen chicken meat, including carcasses, whole birds, boneless cuts, offal and other portions.

Amie spokesperson George Southey last week dismissed claims of imported chicken meat having a dismal impact on the local market, indicating that Itac and Sapa had refused to divulge information on which it based this finding.

In this regard, Amie would file an application on June 18 in the High Court, in Pretoria, against Itac’s chief commissioner and Sapa to access this information and inspect the grounds for Sapa’s application.

Last week, Sapa said that up to 20 000 jobs could be lost in the domestic poultry industry, as producers would have to resort to retrenchments to mitigate the impact of operational challenges caused by a flood of low-quality chicken imports from Brazil and the European Union.

Sapa CEO Kevin Lovell said in a state- ment that government would have to act decisively to clamp down on the import of cheap chicken, which he said had a devas- tating impact on the local market.

He added that imports into the South African meat market amounted to over 260-million chickens.

“Should this continue, another 20 000 jobs will be lost in the short term, with fresh investment drying up and no new jobs created. As the poultry industry accounts for around one-third of local maize consumption and almost all soya consumption, the rural economy, its sustainability and future development are also at risk,” Lovell stated.

Sapa senior executive Sol Motsepe emphasised that imported chicken meat also negatively affected South Africa’s food security.

“A slight possible increase in the price of some chicken products is a small price to pay for saving an industry, protecting and creating jobs and, most importantly, safeguarding our nation’s food security,” he urged.

Motsepe encouraged consumers of local chicken not to be misguided by what he referred to as Amie’s “smear media campaign to misinform the public about the quality of our chicken and imminent price increases.”

This was in reaction to Amie’s statement that consumers preferred imported chicken, as local chicken meat comprised up to 30% water, notably higher than the Department of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries’ recommendation of between 4% and 8%.