“Unlike the rest of the world South African poultry producers don’t receive any support from government. One often wonders if there is even moral support,” SA Poultry Association (SAPA) president Alan Saunders told the 111th AVI Africa poultry conference in Johannesburg.
The local poultry industry was also in dire need of transformation, but it was difficult when the local industry and government were always at loggerheads, said Saunders.
SAPA had proposed a ‘partnership approach’ after seeing many transformation projects fail because emerging poultry producers did not have the necessary skills, said SAPA’s Charlotte Nkuna.
“It used to be that a poultry producer would sell his farm and the newcomers would take over. They soon discover that it is difficult and by the time they realise there are problems it is too late. We think large companies must be involved. Then the newcomers can also have access to funds with the balance sheets of large companies as backup,” said Nkuna.
She said SAPA had began a process with the Industrial Development Corporation to procure locally produced poultry meat in 2013/2014.
But to date it has been unsuccessful, with government saying it procured caterers, not specific items.
