South Africa: Poultry imports rebound after four years of decline

A four-year decline in poultry imports into South Africa has come to an end. Imports for the first 11 months of 2023 were higher than the total for 2022. Chicken imports in 2023 thus comfortably exceeded the previous year for the first time since 2018. The increase does not signal the start of another assault on the South African poultry market such as the floods of dumped chicken portions that did so much damage to the local chicken industry in previous decades, but it will be watched with concern by South African poultry producers . Poultry imports, nearly all of which is chicken, peaked at 566,000 tonnes in 2018. Since then, import volumes have dropped steadily and were down to 373,000 tonnes last year. Reasons for decline in poultry imports The reasons for the years-long decline are multiple and difficult to separate. They include widespread outbreaks of bird flu in Europe, the United States (US) and Argentina, the Covid pandemic's disruptions to production, Rand depreciation ...