Poultry farmers promise to provide all the facts, data and opinions needed about the industry's performance.
The South African Poultry Association (Sapa) has agreed to cooperate fully with the Poultry Market Inquiry announced by the Competition Commission.
Earlier, representatives of South Africa's struggling poultry industry questioned the need for the inquiry and expressed concern at some of the statements and assumptions in the Commission’s announcement.
Central to the inquiry will be the issue of the concentration of large companies in both the broiler and egg industries.
“The poultry industry is extremely concerned at the Commission’s statement that there are ‘ongoing demands for bailouts through ever-increasing tariffs and the imposition of anti-dumping duties’,”
Sapa said.
According to the statement, the industry’s biggest competitor is imports. Particularly companies in the United States that slaughter more than 45 million birds per week, compared to the 21.5 million per week produced in South Africa.
The 2019 Poultry Master Plan committed the government to helping to curb imports, to act decisively against illegal and dumped chicken imports, and to promote local industry growth and job creation.
According to South African poultry farmers, South African poultry production costs have recently increased due to rapidly rising feed prices following the outbreak of Russia's military conflict with Ukraine, as well as local factors such as power cuts, water supply problems and poor roads and railroads. As a result, the industry made no profits last year, and top companies recorded substantial losses.
Industry representatives are ready to provide the Competition Commission with "facts, data and opinions to illustrate the performance of the South African poultry industry" and to indicate factors that help or hinder growth, production, employment and profitability, Sapa emphasized.
In early February, the South African Competition Commission published the draft terms of reference for a Poultry Market Inquiry (PMI). This followed a summer outbreak of avian influenza in the country and a sharp increase in the price of chicken eggs and poultry meat. The regulator intends to find out whether there are features in the poultry market that may impede, distort or restrict competition.
Source: Freight News
