FEATHERS FLY OVER POULTRY SHIPMENTS
Government action vital to stop import flood, and resultant job losses
South Africa’s chicken industry says it is under threat from subsidised imports
South Africa’s chicken industry will not survive another decade without a multipronged government intervention to create fair import tariffs, police the quality and quantity of imports and introduce subsidies that match those of chicken’s Big Three: the European Union, USA and Brazil, which dominate world production and subsidise their producers.
Marthinus Stander, who chairs both Country Bird Holdings and South African Poultry Association’s (Sapa) Broiler Organisation, says there is an issue with the frozen blocks of chicken coming into the country.
Sapa is concerned that blocks, consisting of offal and other pieces, are being thawed on arrival, and then re-frozen into saleable packs. The process is illegal and constitutes a major health hazard for consumers.
“Sapa will approach the government to investigate the proced ure, especially the health concerns.”
Paul Matthew, spokesperson for the Association of Meat Importers and Exporters (Amie) could not be contacted for comment at the time of going to press. With regard to tariffs, Stutterheim’s Anca Foods marketing director Ryan Isemonger said: “SA is being forced into another game, and we cannot play by the same rules. The EU, potentially our largest export market, grows its exports by reducing prices through producer input subsidies.
“It simultaneously protects its own industry through quota triggered import tariffs, creating a ceiling on imports, making it difficult for South African producers to break in.
“Importers argue against increased tariffs by telling us to increase our own exports,” said Isemonger, “but they ignore the Big Three’s subsidies. Suggestions that we must ‘simply develop an export market’, as Amie has stated publicly, completely miss the point.
“SA cannot compete against massively over-subsidised foreign producers, unless the government backs us with tariff increases, and far stricter quality control on imports.”
He says Amie has 67 members, of which 32 are based outside SA. They include meat and chicken producers, export associations and boards.
“How can South African consumers and producers rely on overseas associations and producers to have their best interests at heart?”
South Africans are among the world’s biggest chicken consumers – with 17% imported.
Janusz Luterek of Hahn Inc is a food industry engineer. He says the latest importer-exporter spat has its origins in a “chicken brining war”.
Importers accused local manufacturers of injecting between 30% to 35% brine – salt water – into IQF (independently quickfrozen) chicken pieces.
Luterek advised the department of trade and industry on drafting brine legislation.
Luterek said Amie and Sapa had reached an uneasy truce on brining, which was reduced to 15%.
Stander said Sapa had accepted the brining limitation but was ready to fight certain import allowances, which impact directly on job creation. From 2002 imports grew by 140%.
Sapa’s concern is that for every extra 10,000 tons imported, 1,000 jobs in the 130,000 direct and indirect chicken industry are shed.
Should the government stop all imports, the industry could cope with any shortfall within a year. Large producers could up production by 15%, and stimulation of emerging farmers would supply the balance.
“Anca employs 600 people directly, but a lot more of Stutterheim’s people rely on us for a living. If we don’t tackle imports, the long term is dire.”