Government is holding back a critical South African industry

South Africa’s poultry industry has the potential to become a global exporting powerhouse, but a lack of government support is hampering this.

A 2025 study by the Wageningen University in the Netherlands found South Africa to have the 2nd most globally competitive poultry market behind Brazil.

The country is now able to produce chicken cheaper and more efficiently than the United States, and has been more cost competitive than the European Union for the past 13 years.

In spite of this, South Africa’s chicken export volumes have declined in recent years as the country continues to import more poultry products from its global trading partners.

In April 2026, the Department of Trade, Industry and Competition (DTIC) reported a 9% increase in chicken exports between the years 2019 and 2025.

According to the non-profit trade movement Fairplay, however, audited export statistics from SARS showed export volumes in 2019 were 50,229 tonnes, while 2025 sat at just 41,607 tonnes.

This is around a 17% decline in chicken export volumes, which coincided with substantial growth in the volume of chicken imported into the country.

Fairplay reported that every month since September 2025, chicken import volumes were higher than that same month a year prior, with March 2026 showing a 12% increase over March 2025.

Bone-in chicken imports increased by 26% in 2025 to approximately 50,000 tonnes. This continued into 2026, with first quarter imports being 104% higher than the same period last year at 14,500 tonnes.

Fairplay said this came at a time when the United States and Argentina, two of the biggest exporters of chicken to South Africa, were experiencing outbreaks of bird flu.

“For the same reason, a third big producer, the European Union, exported nothing at all to South Africa in the first quarter,” Fairplay said.

“That is likely to change as bird flu outbreaks lessen when the northern hemisphere moves into warmer summer months. For the South African poultry industry, that is not good news.”

More government support is needed

Numerous poultry industry stakeholders have called on South Africa’s various governmental departments to support the increase of chicken exports.

In a recent webinar hosted by Fairplay, South African Poultry Association (SAPA) CEO Izaak Breitenbach said the local poultry industry had grown by 26% since 2019.

Yet despite investment in the poultry sector reaching R2.1 billion between 2019 and 2025, the country still lags behind the rest of the world in terms of chicken exports.

Breitenbach attributed this to the government support which many of the world’s largest chicken exporters receive.

China’s poultry industry, the fifth largest exporter of broiler meat in 2025, is directly subsidised by the Chinese government.

And while other large players such as Brazil and the United States are not directly subsidised, they are often indirectly supported through various government programmes.

The support from the South African government towards facilitating higher export volumes, on the other hand, has been minimal according to Breitenbach.

The DTIC launched phase one of its Poultry Sector Master Plan in 2019, with one of its key aims being to reduce export barriers and increase export volumes.

This has been largely inefficient, as potential markets such as the UK and the EU have still not opened to South African poultry exports even after conducting inspections.

SAPA has thus called on the DTIC, the Department of Agriculture (DOA) and DIRCO to better facilitate export relations with these markets.

According to Breitenbach, this is the first of three key issues that need to be addressed by the South African government, with the second being better compartmentalisation.

Currently, South Africa’s provinces are considered individual compartments, meaning an outbreak of bird flu in one part of a province would prevent the entire province from being able to export.

Thirdly, better vaccination of chickens against bird flu is a necessity, as once a majority of birds are vaccinated the number of infections would drop and exports would grow.

Breitenbach said that discussions between SAPA and the various departments on these issues are still ongoing, with Agriculture Minister John Steenhuisen reportedly responding positively.