Cheap imports imperil 12 000 jobs
AS MANY as 12 000 jobs could be lost as the local poultry industry is flooded with cheaper imports.
According to Poultry Association chief, Kevin Lovell, much has been made about the 6 000 potential job losses in the industry, but he feels just as many jobs for people indirectly linked to the sector could also be lost.
“For every 10 000 tons (chicken) imported, we lose 1 000 direct and indirect jobs,” he said.
“We anticipate that by the end of the year it will be oneon-one with indirect and direct jobs. That’s 12 000.”
This includes informal traders of live chickens, animal feed production and distribution and other service providers.
Witnessing this trend in KwaZulu-Natal is Manderston chicken hatchery owner Philip Bowmaker, who has watched the disappearance of small buyers.
In the past, he said, he used to often see “an elderly woman who got out of a taxi and came to buy a box of (day-old) chickens, then jumped back on a taxi home to go and sell them on”. “It’s not a happy story.” He said the impact of chicken imports flooding the market started about three years ago.
“It’s always the poorer guys who lose out. They have since had to eke out a living some other way.”
In Durban’s Warwick Market, Fikile Sigwebela, who has been selling live chickens for 16 years is still in business – but is feeling the pinch.
She said she had to drop her price from R60 to R50.
“I have not been able to sell for R60 since Christmas. I try to do that, now nobody will buy them and the birds will die.”
Bruce McKenzie, who produces fertilised eggs sold to hatcheries in the Midlands, said for the first time in 15 years he was seeing people going out of business, which included letting staff go.
Others had downscaled and were culling earlier simply to keep going.
Compounding the problem has been the cost of feed, which has escalated as a result of the drought and competitors being able to grow maize cheaper.
The Hillcrest Aids Centre Trust, whose granny groups rear chickens, said while the fattened birds were being sold, grain had become more expensive.
Cosatu’s KwaZulu-Natal secretary, Edwin Mkhize, said the union federation had not yet analysed how many indirect beneficiaries of the poultry sector would be affected.
However, he echoed other stakeholders’ views that the issue of import surpluses needed to be solved at government level.
“We are busy debating how to protect that industry.”