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.”
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