Fin24 reports that the government is in the process of trying to find funding for chicken producers who are facing closure or who have closed due to the poultry crisis in South Africa.  

This was indicated by Senzeni Zokwana, Minister of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries, in reply to a question in the National Assembly on Wednesday about government’s efforts to preserve jobs in the poultry sector.  The Department of Trade and Industry was leading an inter-ministerial task team to consider the competitiveness of the poultry industry and what could be done to save jobs, Zokwana said.  He added that SA’s poultry sector was not as competitive as it could be due to the fact that producers used a lot of brining (salt water) in the chicken they produced.  “In addition, there’s the dumping of brown meat from countries, such as those in the European Union (EU), while South African chicken farmers and producers, which are not subsidised have to compete with EU countries that are subsidised.”

• Read this report by Liesl Peyper in full at Fin24

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