Letter from the Editor

Earlier this month, an AGOA summit was hosted successfully in Johannesburg. The consensus from commentators was that the trade between the US and South Africa was too important to fail. Our analyst Chris Hattingh gives a superb analysis of the summit in his podcast (see link below).

AGOA is important to the South African poultry industry in a tangential form: part of the reciprocity of trade depends on South Africa accepting a quota of rebated poultry imports from the US. It was a sticking point in 2015, and it is possibly a sticking point again.

A lot has happened in the last few weeks. Our ports have imploded, slowing down trade and costing millions. A heatwave combined with loadshedding has hit the agricultural sector like a tidal wave. The poultry industry is still struggling to make up losses from the recent Avian Flu outbreak. The South African government has been stridently in favour of foreign policies that directly contradict US foreign policy, and a recent Harvard University study has concluded that South Africa's biggest problem is its government. All of these are making AGOA negotiations a lot less predictable.

The Poultry Master Plan was announced in 2019 as a strategy to bring role-players together to improve food security around chicken. A lot of grand ideas were put on the table - it was envisaged that by 2020 there would be real progress in the industry: transformation, inclusivity, investment, exports, regulatory overhauls. 2020 ended three years ago and the only discernable success from the Poultry Master Plan has been the imposition of anti-dumping tariffs on imported chicken.

As both Hume International's Fred Hume and the Association of Meat Importers and Exporters (AMIE)'s Paul Matthew are now saying, it is time for either a new Poultry Master Plan or a new way of doing things that involves closer collaboration.

Our food security depends on it.

Poultry Analysis 27 November 2023

The news in South Africa at the moment veers from bad to even worse, especially in terms of food security and food inflation.

The Insider's Perspective - Consumers are Paying the Price

The poultry industry has seen its ups and downs over the last decade with farmers and processors claiming losses due to various factors that include imports, utility hikes, load-shedding, rising labor costs and fuel hikes.

Podcast:

To read any of our previous Fact Sheets, our Avian Flu Barometer, or any other content, please visit our website. If you wish to subscribe to this newsletter, click here.

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