Chicken questions

In his most recent letter, Francois Baird of Fairplay launches one of his regular passionate attacks on a letter of mine, wherein I aired views on lowering the temperature of the long-running “chicken wars” and finding a compromise for the way forward (Spin for Poultry Importers, September 4). I have some questions in response.

Baird refers to an import market share of 30%, whereas the true figure for comparable products is 15%. This is based upon official statistics produced by the SA Revenue Service and department of agriculture, forestry and fisheries, and concurs with the volumes published on local poultry websites. Would Baird kindly publish his calculation? He also informs the country that 30,000 local jobs could be created if the higher import tariffs applied for were granted. Recently published professional economic research concludes that new jobs would be minimal, if any, and the higher tariffs would create job losses in the wider economy. A simple calculation based on published industry productivity statistics reaches a similar conclusion. Would Baird be willing to produce evidence disproving this research?

Baird refers to “dumped imports” in SA. Having retired from the industry nearly a year ago, I truly don’t know if this allegation is true or not. What I do know is that there has been no dumping investigation for more than five years, so it is not a proven fact that dumping currently exists. Would Baird concede this? For the record, all comments represent my personal opinion.

David Wolpert

Rivonia