Poultry imports (mainly chicken) peaked in 2018 at 566,00 tonnes but have since seen a steady decline down to just 373,000 tonnes in 2022. However, for the first 11 months of 2023, imports were higher than the total for 2022.
Reports say that the reasons for the long decline in imports are complex and include widespread outbreaks of bird flu in Europe, the US and Argentina, the Covid pandemic’s disruptions to production, the depreciation of the South African currency and, perhaps to a lesser extent, higher import tariffs.