Astral Food still concerned about EU’s ‘unfair practices’
Astral Foods CEO Chris Schutte said he remains concerned about unfair practices by the EU. In the six months to end-March, the poultry producer reported a 54% drop in net profit to R136m. Group revenue was down 1% to R5.79bn as feed and poultry sales volumes dropped, with the latter affected by new brining legislation. "We are not concerned about imports from the EU," said Schutte. "We are concerned about the dumping of chicken product at a lower price than we can produce at. Dumping is an unfair practice. We are not concerned with free and fair trade. We will remain concerned about dumping until such a time that the playing field is levelled," said Schutte. In the period under review, Astral said it had to contend with poultry imports that equated to an average of 8.2-million birds a week despite efforts to reduce European imports. In December, the government slapped a 13.9% safeguard duty on EU bone-in chicken portions, which the poultry industry has described as inadequate. Astra...
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