Talk about hypocrisy. Georg Southey conveniently avoids the truth about chicken dumping, while accusing the industry of hiding the facts (Poultry sector foxes public by crying wolf, February 28). Dumping – selling goods here below the cost of production — is what is killing the local chicken industry. Illegal dumping is costing thousands of jobs and thousands more are at risk. Yet not once does Southey refer to dumping — he speaks only of "imports". Southey, whose organisation represents the importers who are making fortunes by buying chicken at dumped prices and selling it high on South African markets, pretends that the only problem is that the local industry cannot compete with imports. The local industry is remarkably efficient — a study conducted by a world-leading agricultural institute, Wageningen University and Research Centre, found it to be the fifth most efficient chicken producer in the world. SA is on average 25% cheaper than EU countries and would compete well against ...
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