South Africa’s chicken imports were ahead of 2025 import volumes in each of the first five months of this year. This is shown in SAPA’s imports reports for May 2025.
By Michael Acott
Further increases over 2025 are likely later this year, because of the nine-week bird-flu ban on poultry imports from Brazil in mid-2025. Brazil is by far the biggest supplier of poultry to South Africa, and the ban caused a sharp reduction in import totals for several months.
Despite a monthly drop in May, the chicken-import total for the first five months was nearly 16% above the same period last year. Bone-in portions were up 53% by May, mechanically deboned meat (MDM) was up by 19% and offal by 1%.
Poultry imports peaked in 2018 and have dropped substantially since then. The decrease has been ascribed to a combination of antidumping and other duties, and widespread bird flu in major poultry-producing countries.
MDM and offal account for the bulk of South Africa’s poultry imports. Together they made up 88% of imports in May (74% MDM, 14% offal). Bone-in portions – the imports that compete with locally produced packs of individually quick frozen (IQF) chicken portions – were 11% of imports in May.
Import volumes of bone-in portions are increasing again after years of steady decline. They were up 26% in 2025 and higher tonnages from the United States, Brazil and Argentina pushed totals up again in the first five months of this year.
Brazil supplied 94% of South Africa’s poultry imports in May. Most of this (75%) was MDM. Imports from the US are nearly all bone-in portions, mainly leg quarters.
Chicken exports rose by 10% on a monthly basis in May, but the total for the first five months was 12% or 2 000 tons below the same period last year.
This article first appeared in Poultry Bulletin (Issue 33) August/September 2026 and is republished with permission. Click the cover below for the full edition.
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