RESEARCH ON DUMPING
Poultry industry is efficient, say experts
CEO Chris Schutte says 'solid, independent' research from the Netherlands shows SA's producers get product to market cheaper than European countries
Astral Foods, the big bird of the JSE’s poultry sector, has presented research to dispute suggestions that SA’s poultry industry operates inefficiently. In January the EU, which has been accused of dumping brown chicken meat in SA, suggested local poultry producers suffered from structural problems that hampered its competitiveness. Speaking at Astral’s annual general meeting on Thursday, CEO Chris Schutte said "solid, independent" research from the Wageningen University in the Netherlands showed the local poultry industry produced a whole bird between 10% and 29% cheaper than European countries — despite the high maize price over the past three years. "This is enough proof to say classic dumping does exist in SA, because European countries are selling their product here at below production cost," Schutte said. He pointed out that three years ago it cost European poultry producers about R26/kg to produce a bird. "It could now be as high as R32/kg. Now they are selling leg quarters i...
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