Ipap is needed urgently to save jobs
SOUTH Africa’s government would need to urgently implement the Industrial Policy Action Plan (Ipap) to help offset the job losses ravaging the poultry industry due to imports of cheap chicken, according to the Agricultural Business Chamber (Agbiz).
Tinashe Kapuya, the head of international trade and investment intelligence at Agbiz, said in light of the current free trade agreements with Europe and the US, the government needed to step in to stabilise the poultry industry.
“We have had five years where the poultry industry has really been struggling; the government has to use the Ipap incentives to alleviate the impact on the sector, only incentives would allow our companies to be competitive,” Kapuya said yesterday.
Ipap is a government initiative that aims to deploy trade policies more strategically, revive procurement legislation and targets anti-competitive practices. The Food and Allied Workers Union (Fawu) said it would today stage a march in Pietermaritzburg against the job losses in the poultry sector. The union has blamed the trade agreement with the EU for the loss of jobs.
Katishi Masemola, the general secretary of Fawu, said the influx of chicken into the country was costing poultry companies R1 million a day and called on the government to arrest the situation and meet with it and the industry soon.
“There is no luxury to delay in the face of the real life crises of (a jobs) bloodbath,” Masemola said.
“The industry has had to contend with the African Growth and Opportunity Act, which allows US poultry access to the local market. The EU exports nearly 72 percent of poultry to South Africa while Brazil brings in 17 percent.
This action by Fawu comes two weeks after poultry and other foods producer RCL Foods said it would lay off half of its staff as cheaper imports had eaten into its sales. The company employs 2 500 people in its KwaZulu-Natal, Hammerasdale factory. It has warned of possible further job cuts in the future.
Poultry producer Astral said in July that it was cutting back on production and would consider job cuts due to oversupplied domestic market.
South African Poultry Industry chief executive Kevin Lovell said while he believed the government was willing to assist the industry, it was finding it difficult to act with the speed and decisiveness that the industry urgently needed.
“Both the Department of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries and the Department of Trade and Industry have tools in their box that can assist us, the Department of Health has a potential tool as well which would assist us and also help improve the safety of chicken offered for sale to consumers. We are in their hands.”