South Africa has applied for market access to the European Union (EU) to enable the export of chicken breasts to the trade bloc.
This is according to the head of the EU delegation to South Africa, Marcus Cornaro, who noted that the European industry had offered to help open EU markets for SA exports, especially in light of the challenges faced currently by the local poultry sector.
Speaking in response to the Fair Play Social Support Summit yesterday – held to raise awareness of the poultry sector crisis – he said that should the application be successful, this would be a “win-win” solution to the poultry crisis, supported by market demand and “supply logic” as breast meat attracted higher prices.
The FairPlay movement, which describes itself as “a new, principle-based global initiative whose sole interest is in making available international experts to help stop the proliferation of dumping worldwide”, said on its Facebook page that there had been “warnings that the industry might not survive beyond December 2017 if dumping continues at the current rate”. The movement has started a petition against dumping of chicken by the EU.
Cornaro however reiterated earlier statements that it was “simply not true” that poultry imports from the EU were the “root cause” of job losses in the local sector and that FairPlay’s persistent media campaign against EU poultry imports was “misinformed and opportunistic”.
He pointed out that in the period January to May 2017, the EU had exported 61.4% less poultry to SA compared to the same period in 2016. “EU exports of bone-in chicken portions have effectively dropped by two thirds globally due to the outbreak of avian influenza in a number of EU producer countries,” Cornaro commented.
According to him, input costs, export markets, value chain sustainability and retail markets are all factors that need to be addressed to ensure an economically viable, competitive and sustainable poultry industry.
