While chicken importers applaud the suspension of anti-dumping duties, South African chicken farmers say it will hurt job creation, put the local industry at great risk, and could destroy it.

Described as a win for consumers, the government's decision to suspend anti-dumping duties on chicken imports from Brazil, Denmark, Ireland, Poland and Spain has been welcomed by the SA Meat Importers and Exporters Association (AMIE), but the South African Poultry Association (SAPA) is less than thrilled. It has warned that a failure to replace provisional anti-dumping duties when they expired in June has put the local industry at risk.

AMIE, meanwhile, says the decision shows the government was "putting its citizens first".

It's not the outcome the association had hoped for, as it had previously asked for a three-year moratorium.

In March 2020, the government raised import tariffs on bone-in poultry products from 37% to 62%, to protect the domestic poultry market. Chicken imports account for 14.9% of all chicken consumed in SA, but local producers have complained for years that cheap chicken was being dumped on South African consumers.

SA does not produce enough poultry meat to satisfy domestic demand, which is why imports are needed to cover the...