The Poultry Master Plan in South Africa is being revisited, following claims from industry stakeholders that the first plan was ineffective.
The poultry industry is pushing for a renewed focus on restructuring the country’s trade tariffs to curb illegal chicken imports. According to Izaak Breitenbach of the SA Poultry Association (Sapa), the government and the industry are looking to include this in an updated master plan.
Issues that the industry seeks to address include the removal of value-added tax (VAT) from chicken, the approval of vaccinations against bird flu, a revived export drive, and tariff restructuring.
Sapa and new trade minister Parks Tau met in August, and follow-up meetings are planned.
“Minister Tau has asked for four focus areas to be included in the revised master plan, namely transformation, localisation, skills development, and export promotion. The meeting decided to keep the master plan’s existing five pillars and to propose actions under these pillars,” Breitenbach said.
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Key issues to address
On behalf of the poultry industry, Breitenbach presented several action points in the revised master plan.
These are:
- The master plan is to support and action the removal of VAT from poultry meat.
- The escalation of the lack of vaccination against HPAI to the ministers of agriculture and the DTIC, whose predecessors signed the original master plan.
- The action of exports to the EU, UK, UAE, and Saudi Arabia.
- The revision of all trade measures.
- The non-payment for training by the AgriSeta.
Sapa had asked for tariff restructuring to prevent the under-declaration of chicken imports as well as the declaration of imported products under the wrong tariff heading.
“The matter has been investigated by (SA trade regulator) ITAC, which submitted a report to former minister Ebrahim Patel.
“Earlier this year, minister Patel told us this issue was now a priority. We sincerely hope that minister Tau sees this in the same serious light,” Breitenbach said.
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