Riyaz Patel
Agriculture Minister Thoko Didiza says the signing of the Poultry Sector Master Plan will provide a framework for a determined effort to grow jobs in the industry through a number of measures.
“Significantly, it sets out a new joint vision across the value chain, identifies five pillars that underpin the vision and creates a Poultry Sector Master Plan Council to monitor and drive implementation of the pillars,” said Didiza.
The document was signed on Wednesday during the second South African Investment Conference in Sandton, and will also see an increase in black participation and ownership across the value chain and increase employment and worker share-ownership in the sector, the ministry said.
The plan has been developed in close partnership between government and a number of stakeholders in the industry including poultry producers, farmers, processors, exporters, importers and organised labour.
To support the outcomes of the masterplan, chicken producers are committing R1.5bn in fresh investment in their own production facilities within the next four years.
This is expected to result in nearly 4 000 additional jobs in the production of chicken in pursuit of these outcomes.
Didiza said government was expecting R1.7bn of investment in the establishment of 50 commercial scale contract farmers. This investment will be supported by the industry and various government agencies.
The masterplan is also expected to ensure that locally produced products makes up an increasingly larger proportion of consumption over time.
“[It will] expand the industry by increasing capacity at all stages of the value chain manufacturing of feed, farming of chickens and processing of poultry product – thereby increasing fixed investment, employment and the value of output,” said the department.
