Chicken importers agree on statutory levy

The chicken products import industry is a step closer to converting its currently voluntary levy to a statutory levy, according to David Wolpert, CEO of the Association of Meat Importers and Exporters (Amie). The final deadline date for comments from directly affected poultry groups to be submitted to the National Agricultural Marketing Council (NAMC), has come and gone and the next move will be an analysis of these comments by the council and the association. “It will still be some months before our request for this statutory levy can be finalised,” said Wolpert. With the NAMC Act stipulating that a statutory levy may not exceed 5% of the price realised for a specific agricultural product at the first point of sale, Amie has proposed a 2cents/ kilogram levy on imported chicken products, which would result in an estimated income of between R5.1 and R5.9m for 2014/2015. And this amount, Wolpert added, is paid to the NAMC, which uses it to perform a list of tasks for the industry, strictly defined by the Marketing of Agricultural Products Act (Mapa) of 1996. “These would include,” he said, “import promotion, information distribution, compliance insurance, consumer assurance, and also a big proportion for transformation (an obligatory 20%).” The reason for the change from voluntary to statutory is that, under a voluntary scheme, there is no confirmation of the monies being paid. “But when it is statutory,” said Wolpert, “it is monitored from being linked to the issue of import permits.” It will in no way lead to an increase in chicken prices, he added. “The levy payments will be absorbed by the importers.” INSERT & CAPTION Levy will be used for import promotion, information distribution, compliance insurance, consumer assurance and transformation. – David Wolpert