LETTER: Poultry tariffs hurt struggling South Africans

It’s common knowledge that the world is in the middle of a financial crisis and SA is struggling with many critical issues, causing great pain and poverty to more than half of our population, many of them unemployed. Most rely on handouts or government grants, and certainly cannot afford regular, decent and nourishing meals.

Food prices are rising at an alarming rate and show no signs of levelling off, making life significantly more difficult for those millions of people existing below and marginally above the poverty line.

Chicken is the most popular and arguably the healthiest and cheapest form of protein. The average South African consumes about 40kg of chicken per annum. Millions depend on it for their survival. It is, therefore, common sense that desperate people desperately need affordable chicken.

The two largest chicken producers in the country, with a joint market share of about 50%, recently produced sparkling results despite numerous headwinds. So what does our government do? Through their International Trade Administration Commission (Itac) it has just given local poultry a huge gift by imposing enormous provisional dumping duties on imported bone-in chicken cuts, the most popular item on SA’s chicken menu.

These duties, it must be stressed, come on the back of enormous customs duty increases recently imposed by the selfsame infamous Itac, as well as existing dumping duties introduced more than five years ago.

I spent years in the meat and chicken importing business and know a set-up when I see one. I cannot honestly say dumping is not taking place, but having followed the current investigation closely, I fervently believe the swingeing new duties are not based on a fair investigation.

Itac falls under trade, industry & competition minister Ebrahim Patel, architect of the country’s controversial localisation programme. Is Itac operating in a pressurised environment? Of course, we don’t know the answer.

However, before the local hounds pounce on me, it is totally irrelevant at this point. Chicken prices will in any event increase because of high feed costs affecting local poultry producers, as well as the huge inflationary effects of the current economic climate.

That is a sad reality. But to add gigantic duty increases less than two years after the last set of large increases adds significantly to the survival battle millions of our population face daily. This is nothing short of cruel.

The government should be doing everything in its power to reduce, not increase, chicken prices. It could easily achieve this by lowering the insane duties and classifying chicken as a VAT-free product.

Local poultry spokespersons will counter that lowering the current sky-high duties will cause huge job losses. They have been claiming this for years, but the financial statements of their clients do not substantiate these claims. If importers are wealthy exploiters of the poor, as they continuously claim, then name and shame them.

Let government put its money where its mouth is and give the poor and starving population some breathing room by easing the costs of their most vital and essential source of protein. Local poultry is well run and can easily compete, despite protestations to the contrary.

We need a master plan to reduce chicken prices, so everybody will win. 

David Wolpert, Rivonia

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