Listeners of my podcasts will recall that when I first argued for South Africa to place temporary restrictions on the import of poultry products from Brazil, the idea wasn’t for us to be protectionist. Instead, we wanted to ensure that Brazil could control the avian influenza outbreak before resuming imports. This decision was not unique to South Africa but a standard global practice, and at the time the EU and China had already placed temporary bans on Brazil’s poultry imports.
We also had haunting memories of the 2023 outbreak of avian influenza in South Africa, which led to significant financial losses for poultry producers and higher prices for eggs and other poultry products for consumers. At the same time, we were seeing the perverse spread of various strains of bird flu in the US and parts of the UK, which had crossed from poultry to dairy and then to humans. Having witnessed such cases, it only seemed fair to ensure that South Africa take a careful approach to the imports.
After it was established that the problem was only in a few areas, South Africa started applying regionalised poultry import restrictions and opened some regions for imports. This was to ease poultry supplies in the domestic market, while ensuring careful consideration for the potential spread of the disease. This was also on the back of the recognition of the importance of Brazil to South Africa’s poultry imports. South Africa imports about 20% of its poultry products, about 350,000t a year, of which about 70% is from Brazil.
Having received convincing data on the successful containment and eradication of the disease, South African authorities lifted the ban on Brazil’s poultry product imports. This was effective from July 4 2025. With imports now back on a regular schedule, it is fair to assume fears of a meat price inflation uptick should subside. The resumption of imports bodes well for moderating food price inflation that we hold for the year.
Listen to the podcast for more insights.
Richard Humphries, Sam Mkokeli, Nelisiwe Tshabalala, and Amanda Murimba produce this podcast.
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