January 31, 2025

South African poultry industry to adopt export-driven growth strategy

South Africa's poultry sector intends to, under the leadership of  Trade, Industry and Competition Deputy Minister Zuko Godlimpi, pursue an export-driven growth strategy to advance the South African economy.

During a recent visit to Rainbow Chicken's plant in Rustenburg, the North West region of the country, Department of Trade, Industry and Competition (dtic) agroprocessing chief director Ncumisa Mcata-Mhlauli said the Phase 2 masterplan framework to guide the implementation of the strategy was under development through a collaborative action between government, industry and all social partners.

The  Poultry Sector Master Plan 2030 was signed off in November 2019.

Phase 1 of the masterplan concluded in 2023, and had a focus seeking to address a number of serious challenges faced by the poultry industry, including high feed costs, export barriers, and increasing imports primarily from Brazil and the United States.

According to Mcata-Mhlauli, the second phase of the masterplan will mainly focus on growth driven by exports of cooked meat and local demand increase strategies, effective trade measures, biosecurity measures for local and export markets, and the transformation of the poultry industry, among others.

"The other focus areas proposed by the social partners include addressing food security and malnutrition, proposal on value-added tax exemption for some poultry products, funding, and other support for contract farmers and small businesses, with job creation, job-loss mitigation and transformation as cross-cutting themes," Mcata-Mhlauli said. "The ongoing process to finalise and sign off  the Phase 2 framework is being facilitated through the convener's structure of the masterplan and bilaterals with constituencies represented."

Mcata-Mhlauli also highlighted the dtic's role in trade support for the poultry industry and pointed out its importance towards ensuring protection of the industry against imports, as well as the promotion of  exports.

"It is important for us to engage with the industry on several issues that require collaboration with the Department of Agriculture, Land Reform and Rural Development," Mcata-Mhlauli added. "This partnership is essential to provide primary support to farmers, ensuring there is sufficient production to feed the nation. Most importantly, the government needs to support the investment efforts of the industry, enabling optimal employment of existing capacities created as this will ensure sustainable growth of the industry envisaged."

- Engineering News