In this edition of Business Day Spotlight, our focus is on the SA poultry industry and how it has fared in recent years in the face of cheap foreign imported chicken.

Our host Mudiwa Gavaza is joined on the line by Francois Baird, founder of FairPlay, an organisation which aims to fight predatory trade practices and dumping.

According to a report by DNA Economics commissioned by the EU-SA Strategic Economic Partnership, the reasons for the slow growth of production and exports by the SA broiler industry and for the increasing share of imports in meeting local demand are matters of considerable contention.

In this discussion, Baird explains the importance of the study, how it came about and unpacks some of the findings.

He also explains the economic impact for the local poultry market and gives thoughts on what will it take to right size local poultry production.

The SA Poultry Association has lodged an application to the International Trade Administration Commission (Itac) — the organisation tasked with customs tariff investigations, trade remedies, and import and export control — calling for an increase in the ad valorem tariff on bone-in and boneless frozen chicken portions to 82% from existing levels of 37% and 12% respectively.

Baird also explains the difficulty local farmers face in getting their produce into stores as it is often cheaper for wholesalers and normal to buy imported meat than the local variant.

Listen in to hear thoughts around these and other questions.

Business Day Spotlight is a MultimediaLIVE Production.