Johannesburg – The African Farmers Association of South Africa (Afasa) is banking on the progress of the Poultry Master Plan to unlock new avenues for emerging players in the embattled sector.
The government this week reviewed the implementation of the blueprint signed in November last year.
One of the key milestones reached was that imports of poultry was down by 17% in the first 10 months of this year, compared with the similar period last year, while poultry meat exports increased by 65 tons a week.
“Afasa has noted the positive signs of progress made in such a short space of time. As South Africans from all walks of life, we need to hold hands and work together to build an inclusive agricultural sector that accommodates all farmers,” said Nakana Masoka, the secretary-general of Afasa.
The government has put in place a tariff on imported poultry to protect local producers. The Minister of Trade, Industry and Competition, Ebrahim Patel, said the new tariff regime had assisted with 1-million additional chickens being produced locally every week since the new duty structure.
“We have had more than R1-billion invested by domestic companies, resulting in nearly 1 000 additional jobs and an encouraging increase in production.”
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