Job creation and preservation must be SA’s top priorities as the country seeks to rebuild its economy after huge job losses from the Covid-19 lockdowns. 2020 has been a miserable year for workers, here and around the world. The situation in SA is critical, because before the coronavirus pandemic we already had one of the world’s highest unemployment rates. Now poverty and joblessness have become an economic pandemic.That is why every government department must put job creation at the top of their list. It is crucial for our economic recovery and future national prosperity that the government supports projects that create jobs, from infrastructure to agriculture.As a new food and agriculture-focused trade union, the Agricultural Food and Allied Democratic Workers Union (AFADWU) seeks to prevent job losses and promote job creation in the agriculture sector and its associated value chains. The interlinked poultry and maize industries are among the sectors on which the union is focusing.Poultry is the largest component of the agricultural sector, and the industry purchases nearly half of the maize and most of the soya produced in this country. That’s a vital combination for the economy and a vital area for the protection and creation of SA jobs.That is why AFADWU and FairPlay believe it is important to prioritise the implementation of the Poultry Sector Master Plan signed last year with the objective of expanding our internationally competitive poultry sector.The master plan aims to create nearly 5,000 jobs in the poultry and grain industries by 2023. It hinges on trade measures such as tariffs to curb the high volumes of predatory imports, much of which are dumped, that have plunged the local chicken industry into crisis, costing thousands of jobs. With a level playing field and fair competition, the SA industry will expand as it replaces significant volumes of predatory imports and then grows further into export markets.The objective is to increase local production by 10% over the next few years through investment by local producers in job-creating improvements and expansion. SA chicken producers have pledged to invest R1.5bn in these projects, of which some R1bn has already been spent. This is a huge boost for an industry where investment and job creation have been curtailed for years because of increasing predatory imports.The master plan has a number of interlocking and job-creating components, all of which will contribute to the...
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