Because of the cutbacks Rainbow Chicken, renamed RCL Foods, is retrenching 1350 workers from the end of the month.
Mike’s Chickens (Limpopo), a family-run business in Polokwane for 38 years, has already closed, putting more than 1000 people out of work.
Country Bird (Free State and North West), the country’s third biggest chicken producer behind Astral Foods (Mpumlanga, Gauteng, Western Cape and KZN) and RCL, is retrenching 1 500 workers.
Kevin Lovell, chief executive of the SA Poultry Association, said about 53 0000 tons of chicken were imported last year - one and a third of what was produced annually by Astral Foods.
This week, Scott Pitman, managing director of RCL Foods, said he no longer knew what to do to save jobs.
