The Association of Meat Importers and Exporters (AMIE) has warned of a national food and economic crisis following the government’s blanket ban on poultry imports from Brazil, but the SA Poultry Association (Sapa) is not so sure.
The department of agriculture, land reform and rural development imposed the ban in May after a highly pathogenic avian influenza (H5N1) outbreak in Brazil’s Rio Grande do Sul state.
Brazil is the world’s top poultry exporter and SA’s dominant source of imported mechanically deboned meat (MDM), chicken offal and other affordable cuts.
SA’s R65bn poultry sector — the second-largest in agricultural industry — provides nearly 58,000 jobs along the value chain and is a vital source of affordable protein for millions of households.
In a strong-worded statement, Amie said local producers “cannot, and will not be able to meet the gap in supply of poultry offal (feet, gizzards, and skins) and mechanically deboned meat (MDM), driving up prices and threatening the affordability and accessibility of basic protein for millions,” adding that MDM prices had already surged from R13/kg to R31/kg, “while offal like gizzards and skins have seen double-digit increases.”
However, Izaak Breitenbach, head of the Broiler Organisation at Sapa, said there was no reason to believe the ban would trigger a shortage of chicken meat or offal in the local market.
Asked whether he believed the warnings about a food crisis were “alarmist”, Breitenbach responded that he did.
“We do not foresee a chicken meat and offal shortage because the industry has enough capacity to meet demand,” he insisted.
He said the country currently slaughtered 21.5-million chickens per week, but had the capacity to raise that to 22.5-million.
“The slaughters are at less than capacity, quite simply because the demand is not there,” he added. “The second reason there is enough chicken in the market is because demand for chicken decreases in the winter.”
Breitenbach acknowledged that MDM — a key input in processed meats such as polony and sausages — would be more difficult to replace.
“We foresee a shortage [if] we do not produce it,” he said. “But although most MDM comes from Brazil, it is also imported from other countries, such as Thailand.”
In a statement from two weeks ago, Breitenbach said that despite Brazil being a significant exporter, it accounted for only 18% of SA’s total poultry consumption last year, with local producers supplying more than 80% of the domestic market.
But Amie is not convinced. Amie CEO Imameleng Mothebe said chicken offal and MDM are necessities in low-income households.
“Ultimately, Brazilian MDM is the source of over 400-million poultry-based meals per month for SA.”
She said while Amie appreciated the commitment by SA poultry producers to increase their production by four-million birds per month during the closure of Brazil poultry exports, “the fact is that local producers alone cannot fill the gap in the production of offal and SA effectively does not produce MDM at commercial scale”.
According to Amie, the following monthly shortfalls would remain, regardless of the additional four-million birds per month from local producers, “and bearing in mind that the local industry will not be able to produce any additional MDM”: chicken feet — 3,773 tonnes; gizzards — 1,315 tonnes; and livers — 287 tonnes.
“Without urgent action to put in place a regionalisation agreement with Brazil, which would allow for the import of products from areas not affected by the outbreak, price increases and food shortages for consumers, and job losses for local manufacturers of processed meats who employ over 125,000 workers, will follow,” Mothebe said.
Breitenbach, however, defended the government’s decision: “The ban on imports from Brazil aims to prevent the virus from being imported with frozen meat and to prevent the industry from losing R9.5m again due to a bird flu outbreak,” he said.
SA faced its most severe bird flu outbreak in 2023, resulting in the loss of millions of birds and hundreds of jobs.
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