South African government raises tariffs on imported chicken meat
Prior to this, the President of South Africa had made a decision to increase the tax on imported chicken. However, some black chicken importers and exporters have said that this approach will only increase the price of chicken, but it cannot really prevent imports.
They also pointed out that relying on such policies alone will not save the chicken industry in South Africa, which is currently in trouble.
Last Friday, South Africa stated in the form of a government bulletin that it would increase the tariff on bone-in chicken to 62% and the tariff on boneless chicken to 42%.
Prior to this, the South African poultry farming industry required that tariffs be increased to 82%. It should be said that the approach adopted by the government is a compromise. Prior to this, South Africa’s tariffs on bone-bone chicken and bone-less chicken were only 37% and 12%, respectively.
In recent years, the poultry farming industry in South Africa has been in poor condition and has experienced frequent layoffs. They said that cheap imported chicken from Brazil, the United States and Europe was the main reason for their poor operation, so they kept asking for more tariffs. But because of this, the local poultry farmers in South Africa have already had a fierce conflict with the meat importers and exporters.
Importers and exporters believe that the lack of competition and aggressiveness in the local poultry farming industry in South Africa are the main reasons for their poor performance. Now they also want to use trade protection measures to stop imports from abroad. In fact, this will cause significant losses to black importers and exporters.
These black emerging importers and exporters also said that the use of higher tariffs will further impact consumers who are already financially constrained. They believe that after the implementation of the new tariffs, the price of two kilograms of frozen bone-in chicken may rise from 129 rand per pack to 162.25 yuan; five kilograms of packaging may rise from 174.95 rand to 224.99 rand: “Current South Africa’s economy is in recession itself, and consumers and small entrepreneurs are trying their best to seek help. Why raise tariffs at this time?”