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Chicken importers head to court

Johannesburg - The Association of Meat Importers and Exporters (Amie) plans to file an application, which relates to import duty costs, in the North Gauteng High Court in Pretoria, the body said on Thursday.

The action relates to obtaining confidential information that might shed light on what chicken import duty costs should be in future, executive committee member Georg Southey said in Johannesburg.

The application will be against the International Trade Administration Commission of SA (Itac), and the SA Poultry Association (Sapa).

In March Sapa applied for an increase in import duties. Amie expects the increase could be up to 82% and, and opposes the application.

Itac initiated investigations, but did not verify some information, and reduced the period for comment from four weeks to three, Amie claimed.

Itac said it had to move fast because the industry was in distress.

Amie disputed this, saying it was mostly doing well, and blamed the local industry's business model for current problems.

Imports were not the cause of the problem, it said.

The application will be filed on June 18 to access apparently confidential information Sapa had supplied to Itac.

"We believe the information is flawed and we want a chance to interrogate it properly," Southey said.

The high court would determine whether the information was confidential or not. Amie will also make a presentation at the Itac headquarters in Pretoria.

The commission had monthly reviews on tariff-related matters and Amie would discuss jobs, socio-economic factors, and brining. Brining involves injecting salty water into parts of a chicken, mostly the breasts.

Amie said hollow steel rods were used to inject the brine into the chicken to make it more succulent, but claimed this process reduced the nutritional value of the protein and made customers pay for frozen water.

"We believe the local industry is selling expensive water, not cheap chicken," Southey said.


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