Categories: NewsPublished On: 16th August 2019

No solutions offered by EU chicken industry study

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A new study commissioned by the European Union into the causes and impacts of the current crisis in the South African poultry sector has failed to offer new insights or solutions to the core problem of dumping, which has decimated the chicken industry over the last years.

Choosing to focus heavily on export potential instead of the pressing issues of material damage caused to the local industry due to unrestricted dumping by predominantly the EU and Brazil, and the ongoing suppression of local development that results from it, the draft study is disappointing in the scope of its research, and the depth of its findings.

The study appears to dismiss accusations of unfair competition, particularly from EU imports, and fails to acknowledge the anti-dumping duties that are currently in place against three EU countries – the Netherlands, Germany and the UK.

One would have hoped that a study that purports to identify the “underlying constraints to growth, competitiveness and transformation of the broiler industry” would have investigated the socio-economic impact of proven chicken dumping in South Africa and would have delved into measures to revive and stimulate the local industry so that it can supply the local market. Instead it seems to suggest that South Africa would be better off, if it kept importing more and more bone-in portions to the point where it was completely reliant on imports. How this would be good for food security, for the South African economy, or for South Africa’s massive unemployment figures, is not clear, and is not addressed in the study.

The integrated poultry industry could create 30 000 jobs in a reasonably short space of time if its market security could be safeguarded from predatory imports. The tens of thousands of smaller farmers across South Africa who provide fresh, high-quality chicken to their families and their communities, could become hundreds of thousands, while the smaller ones could scale up and enter the integrated system, which would strengthen the fabric of South African society in ways that are immeasurable. The chicken industry’s success or failure also affects the grain industry and all the other industries that flow out of the value chain, from transport to packaging – and all the hundreds of thousands of people who rely on the incomes from those jobs.

We, the chicken producers of South Africa, big and small, can make a real contribution to ease South Africa’s unemployment crisis, if we were certain that we would still have a market to sell our chicken into when we have invested in the infrastructure and systems to make this a reality. More imported chicken will bring none of these benefits to South Africa but would only enrich the importers, and export jobs to the EU and Brazil.

We call on the EU to review the scope of its research to investigate real ways in which Europe can apply its considerable resources to strengthen the South African poultry industry so that we can, first and foremost, feed our own nation as we are capable of. With a level playing field, without constantly battling unfair competition and predatory trade practices, the local industry would regain its buoyancy and be able to explore other potential, including a strong export market. South Africa’s previous DTI minister, Rob Davies, said it best: if we don’t support the local chicken industry, we won’t have anything to export.

Source: South African Poultry Association

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