South Africa has imposed provisional anti-dumping duties against bone-in chicken meat imports from Brazil and four European Union countries. With this announcement, South Africa is now imposing antidumping duties against all nine countries that have regularly exported bone-in chicken portions to this market: the United States, Brazil, Spain, Poland, Ireland, Denmark, Germany, Netherlands and the United Kingdom. South Africa’s imports of poultry have declined by 63 percent in the past three years. The announcement of the latest duties threatens to lower imports even further.
This decision comes as a result of an application made by the South African Poultry Association (SAPA) in January 2021. SAPA alleged imports of bone-in chicken meat imported from the five countries were being dumped on the Southern African Customs Union (SACU) market. On December 8, 2021, ITAC announced that they have found sufficient information to indicate that dumping is taking place and local industry is experiencing material injury or threat to material injury caused by the alleged dumped imports. As a result of this review, an anti-dumping duty, which provides lower rates to
specific companies from each country, was imposed on all five countries.
These duties are provisional and will expire in June 2022. ITAC is undertaking further investigations in the interim and will announce the final anti-dumping duties for the five countries at that time.
Implications for Poultry Imports in South Africa
This is the second announcement of anti- dumping duties on poultry issued in recent months. In August 2021, anti-dumping duties were announced for bone-in chicken imports from the Netherlands, Germany, and the United Kingdom. Prior to 2015, these three countries exported to South Africa duty-free due to
their Economic Partnership Agreement with South Africa. With this latest announcement, South Africa is now applying anti-dumping duties to nine countries which collectively represent all exporters of bone in chicken portions to South Africa.
The United States continues to face a 62 percent duty on bone-in portions and is restrained by the Tariff Rate Quota. If the quota is filled, additional imports from the U.S. will be charged an anti-dumping duty of 9.40 Rands per kilogram. South Africa’s imports of poultry have declined by 63 percent in the past three years. The announcement of the latest duties threatens to lower imports even further. Meanwhile, South African producers remain unable to meet demand through domestic production. According to the National Agriculture Marketing Council’s Food Price Monitor, abattoir selling prices of frozen and individually
quick-frozen chicken portions increased by 22 and 13 percent respectively in the year prior to July 2021. As a result of the higher duties on imports, consumer prices may increase further forcing economically disadvantaged South African consumers to spend more of their limited disposable income or make
alternative choices.
