Don't you just love those oven grilled chicken drumsticks coated with your favourite spicy coating? Or those very hot peri peri wings deep fried in hot oil?
Well do you know that your preference for "brown meat" such as chicken drumsticks and wings is listed as one of the major reasons for the poultry "crisis"? Yes it is.
This is as a result of "dumping" of foreign chicken imports from developed nations which prefer chicken breasts or "white meat".
This market preference is affecting the country's poultry sector, which is bleeding thousands of jobs due to the increase in cheaper imports, parliament's select committee on trade and international relations heard yesterday.
"Dumping" occurs when a company exports a product from another country at a price lower than the price normally charged for the same product in the home market.
Garth Strachan, deputy director-general for industrial development in the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI), said high costs of feed and drought had an impact.
"The critical increase in imports of bone-in quarters and you also add mechanically de-boned meat portions is also part of the problem. We all know there are retrenchments under way. It's a very concentrated industry."
It is indeed very sad considering that about 40 000 jobs are on the line should the crisis not be resolved.
