The Department of Trade and Industry (the dti) said that it had secured significant progress across a number of work-streams to develop a common response to the complex challenges facing the domestic poultry industry.

Government recently established a poultry sector task team to deal with the crisis in the domestic poultry industry.

The Task Team is comprised of representatives of the dti, the departments of economic development, agriculture, forestry and fisheries, as well as the Industrial Development Corporation.

Also represented is the sector industry association, Poultry South Africa, and representatives of the poultry producers, representing business. Labour is represented by the leadership of the Food and Allied Workers Union (Fawu).

South African chicken producers, including Rainbow Chicken, are set to retrench more than 3 500 workers in one of the largest industry jobs bloodbaths as they struggle under heavy competition from cheap imported chickens from European Union countries.

The work-streams established by government's task team to process a range of possible short and longer-term interventions include trade measures, health and quality issues, competitiveness, industry growth and transformation, among others.

The dti said the task team would submit a set of short-term and shared interventions for final ratification as soon as the necessary technical work has been completed for the short-term interventions. Meanwhile, government appealed to the industry to do everything possible to prevent any plant closures and retrenchments.

African News Agency