Chicken prices expected to increase
South Africans can expect to pay 30% more for chicken says poultry experts.
The South Africa Poultry Association is worried about the rising cost of poultry after research indicated that some chicken prices had increased by 30 per cent.
Rising production costs linked to the high cost of maize and the weak rand are being blamed for the spiralling food price costs.
The rising costs will hit local consumers hard as the poultry is the only source of affordable protein a lot of South Africans consume.
The poultry industry also creates tens of thousands of jobs in South Africa and the rising costs of poultry production could lead to job cuts according to experts in the poultry industry.
“Incomes are fairly flat, job opportunities are not really being created and those that are seem to be in the civil service, I think there’s a reasonable risk that it will become unaffordable,” SA Poultry Association’s Kevin Lovell.
“Buy local and buy a local job.
“Foreign may be cheaper. But an unemployed South Africa is not good for anybody,” said Lovell
The industry has recently been invoved in an import tariff flap, with local producers accusing international producers of dumping their goods in SA.
