The Association of Meat Importers and Exporters (AMIE) has reiterated its stance that importing chicken into South Africa is crucial to keeping prices of locally available chicken in check for consumers, who it says are struggling to afford this vital source of protein.
AMIE CEO Paul Matthew says imports of chicken into South Africa, as per data from the South African Revenue Service, currently account for 9.4% (excluding mechanically deboned meat) of local consumption.
As noted during a recent media briefing hosted by AMIE, he again suggests that local poultry producers are not taking full advantage of the export market, saying they are too focused on supplying chicken to the domestic market.
“If local producers truly want to increase production, which would boost jobs and benefit the entire value chain, they should focus their sights on seizing the opportunity to build a poultry export market,” says Matthew.
Creating a robust, successful poultry export market for South African chicken would bring “material benefits to the entire value chain”, he adds. This would benefit local producers and their shareholders, medium-sized and small-scale farmers, exporters, processors and consumers.
“Unfortunately, the country is missing this massive opportunity because it does not meet the health and safety standards required by trade blocks such as the European Union [EU],” says Matthew.
For South Africa to export poultry to the global market requires local producers to meet several criteria. These criteria include gaining access to countries with whom South Africa has preferential trade agreements, meeting the international health and safety standards and requirements of countries to which South Africa will export, and for local producers to reorientate their operations to extract value from certain poultry cuts in markets that will pay a premium for them.
“South Africa already has duty-free status in the EU, which means it pays no duties to sell its product there.
“South Africa [also] has favourable, zero-duty trade conditions under the African Continental Free Trade Area agreement,” he says.
Matthew adds that South Africa already exports many agricultural products successfully, such as citrus which, like chicken, needs to meet the health and safety standards set by export markets.
In 2021, he points out, South Africa exported 1.5-million tonnes of citrus, fetching R15.9-billion in export value.
“Conversely, the country currently exports a mere 26 000 t of chicken a year with an export value of R622-million.”