Parliament to hear impact of chicken imports today

Cheap imports have led to thousands of job losses in SA

THE REAL impact of the cheap chicken imports from Brazil, Europe and the US will be revealed in Parliament today.

The arrival of the South African Poultry Association (Sapa) in Parliament comes after Trade and Industry Minister Rob Davies called for South Africa to defend its chicken industry.

He said that if this did not happen, South Africa would have no industry by the end of the year.

The poultry industry is already warning the government to urgently intervene and stop the crisis.

Cheap chicken imports have led to thousands of job losses in South Africa, with more jobs on the line.

Sapa will appear before the portfolio committee on agriculture, forestry and fisheries to report on the extent of the dumping of cheap chicken in South Africa.

Davies set up a task team a few weeks ago to investigate the matter and to look for measures to mitigate the crisis.

In the Budget last week, the National Treasury said the agricultural sector had failed to increase for the past two years.

Treasury director-general Lungisa Fuzile told Parliament that agriculture grew by 3.6% in 2013 and 6.9% the following year, but declined by 5.9% in 2015 and 7% last year.

The sharp decline in agriculture was a result of the nationwide drought.

The government has pumped billions of rand into agriculture to ease the situation.

It is the only sector of the economy that has recorded a massive decline in the past two years.

Fuzile said mining, which had been affected by a downswing in commodity prices, had declined by 1.4% in 2014, but grew by 3.2% in 2015.

However, it declined by 4.1% last year because of low commodity prices and rising operating costs.

Mining and manufacturing bled 80 000 jobs last year, and now MPs are concerned about the impact on jobs of the cheap chicken imports.

The Department of Trade and Industry has said one of the mitigating factors was to ensure anti-dumping measures were fully implemented.

This would prevent some cheap chicken imports from overseas coming into the country.

The task team set up by Davies to investigate the crisis is expected to report back in due course.

Ministers in the economics cluster are leading the team.