Lost your password? Please enter your username or email address. You will receive a link to create a new password via email.Lost your password? Please enter your username or email address. You will receive a link to create a new password via email.Chicken farmers are not the only ones to have borne the brunt of government failings, but their experience illustrates what can go wrong. File photo
The result is that jobs are lost, and possibly thousands more are not created. Large producers fall from profit to loss, and are now slowly recovering when they could have been expanding production for local and export markets. Many small-scale farmers went bankrupt, closed shop and laid off their workers.
South Africa’s poultry industry is an example of a sector where growth is frustrated, not because of industry actions but because of the government. For the past few years, when the poultry master plan should have resulted in growth and jobs, poultry executives must often have felt that the government was working against them, not with them.
Then last year Patel proposed rebates on chicken imports, to fill a non-existent gap in supply to the local market. Despite vociferous opposition from the poultry industry, and evidence that the rebates were unnecessary, they came into effect from January to March this year. The plan aimed to curb chicken imports and reduce their market share as the local industry grew and expanded production. Imports have indeed been curbed, albeit temporarily because of bird flu outbreaks in foreign producer countries.