Countries No. 10. Mozambique: poultry meat
Mozambique customs statistics, only available in value terms, indicate that poultry meat imports rose suddenly over the 2001-2004 period, from less than one million to over five million US dollars by 2005.
Factors contributing to this surge in imports included appreciating exchange rates, transhipments of low-priced chicken products nearing shelf-life expiration and economic incentives deriving from under-invoicing by importers. In addition, over this period, production costs in Mozambique rose following bans on imported chicks from the major supplier, South Africa, due to avian influenza outbreaks. Feed industry representatives indicated that the market disruption caused by low priced poultry imports led to many of their customers being unable to pay their debts. However, other stakeholders, particularly importers, perceived imports as a response to insufficient domestic supply of processed and branded product. In recognition that imports were arriving without certificates of origin and nearing shelf life expiration, transhipped products are no longer allowed, nor are products with a shelf life of less than three months. In the context of this legislation and a forum for reducing production costs for the poultry sector, imports dropped dramatically in 2006 to US$3 million. Identification of import surges in Mozambique is complicated by the lack of adequate trade data, particularly the volume of imports. This data gap also precludes doing an in-depth study of the role of under-invoicing as a factor contributing to import surges.
