Government is implementing necessary reforms to transform and revive the poultry and automotive sector a delegation of senior management from the Department of Trade, industry and Competition (the dtic) told the Select Committee on the dtic, Small Business, Tourism and Labour.
The Department was briefing the committee on Poultry Industry Master Plan and South Africa Automotive Master Plan: Progress on Implementation.
In their presentation to the selected committee, the department said since the implementation of the Poultry Master Plan, a new tariff was put on imported poultry which provides greater protection for local producers, and an increase in production capacity was realized at one million additional chickens produced locally every week since the new duty structure
According to the Chief Director for agro-processing at the dtic, Ms Ncumisa Mcata-Mhlauli the investment in expanding the capacity of the sector was stepped up with R1.15 billion invested in upgrading and improving the efficiency of facilities and In all, 145 300 tons of poultry is now produced by local firms per month.
“Transformation is being facilitated through support programmes for black farmers, with 13 new contract growers assisted with feed and chicks from the producers and 980 new jobs were created in the sector as a result of the increased investment,” added Mcata-Mhlauli.
Mcata-Mhlauli also said the Industrial Development Corporation in partnership with Department of Agriculture, Land reform and Rural development have established a R1 billion Agri-Industrial fund to support viable activities in agro-processing sector and allocated R200 million over three years to support the implementation of the Poultry Masterplan.
Speaking at the same briefing, the Chief Director for Automotives at the dtic, Mr Mkhululi Mlota said the automotive industry is currently showing signs of recovery from the devastation of Covid 19 lockdowns with localisation efforts are being pursued.
“The challenges with the South Africa market is that it remains small as compared to the global market. Regional market has major potential, but undermined by lack of common automotive regime and pre owned vehicle import. While South African average vehicle local content is still low at about 40%, stricter emissions standards in major export markets still remain in place,” he said.
Performance in automotive for 2020 accounted for 18.7% Manufacturing output and 13.9% of Exports. The sector employs about 106 726 people in vehicle and component production down from about 110 250 in 2019, while annual investment by vehicle assemblers stood at R9.2billion and R2.4billion by component producers in the same year.
Enquiries:
Sidwell Medupe-Departmental Spokesperson
Tel: (012) 394 1650
Mobile: 079 492 1774
E-mail: MSMedupe@thedtic.gov.za
Issued by: The Department of Trade, Industry and Competition (the dtic)
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