The production of chickens for meat in SA had room to grow by 50% and egg production had space to triple, said Lovell, who was speaking at an industry conference.
Broiler Organisation committee chairman Steve Steenkamp said imports of poultry last year had increased by 32% to 350202 tons compared to 2010.
The value of poultry imports for last year was R2,752bn, which was a 56% increase compared to 2010.
The trend was "alarming" and represented a sizeable increase, Steenkamp said.
He said most of SA's poultry imports were from Brazil, which remained a "threat to world poultry" due to exchange-rate dynamics, competitive advantages in terms of climate, feed costs, economies of scale and government support.
Steenkamp said that though SA's neighbouring countries' poultry industries had "political sway", SA's did not, and this could have long-term effects on the economy.
"The playing field is definitely not fair right now," he said, adding that the poultry association had successfully lodged an antidumping application with the International Trade Administration Commission to curb dumping of Brazilian poultry.
One of the biggest challenges to SA's industry was "rapidly increasing" feed costs, he said.
He said the poultry association was attempting to grow the broiler production industry by providing training, and it was conducting an industry skills requirement analysis. The broiler industry alone directly employed 23700 people, he said.
In addition to steeply rising imports, the industry was faced by limited disposable incomes because of the weak economy, as well as higher input costs from maize and soya prices, negative media attention and slow growth in demand, he said.
Source: Business Day
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