Africa-Press – South-Africa. There have been renewed calls for chicken products to be added to the list of VAT-exempt food items to support low-income households as the Finance Minister gears up for the 2026 Budget Speech on 25 February.
These calls from lobby groups echo those made in the past, with no major source of protein being added to the list since its inception.
The Finance Minister initially added offal from sheep, pigs, goats, and poultry to the list in his 2025 Budget Speech to mitigate the impact of a VAT increase on households.
However, as the VAT hike was scrapped, so was the inclusion of these new food items alongside canned beans, peas, and dairy liquid blends.
This was set to be the first major change to the zero-rated food item list since 2018. The list currently includes basic food items such as brown bread, maize meal, milk, rice, vegetables, and eggs.
Calls have grown over the past two years to add chicken, which is South Africa’s most widely consumed form of protein, to the list.
In December 2025, the South African Poultry Association (SAPA) renewed its efforts to get chicken added to the list of zero-rated items to support low-income households.
This call was timed to coincide with preparations for the 2026 Budget Speech, with SAPA submitting a formal request to the National Treasury to remove the 15% VAT on chicken.
“Zero-rating chicken would reduce the cost of a staple food relied on by millions of South Africans and improve both affordability and nutrition quality for vulnerable households,” SAPA’s Izaak Breitenbach said.
The organisation included various economic data to support its calls for chicken to be zero-rated, saying households in South Africa fall 38% short of what is required to sustain a basic, nutritious diet.
Removing VAT from chicken would narrow the income-to-food-cost gap, ease pressure on low-income households, and make government feeding schemes more cost-effective, Breitenbach explained.
Another argument made by SAPA for the removal of VAT on chicken is the potential for it to boost demand for the protein, bolstering the local industry.
“Zero-rating chicken would also stimulate demand within a labour-intensive value chain, support job stability and growth and reduce input costs for institutions and feeding schemes,” Breitenbach said.
SAPA’s proposal includes a specific definition of “chicken” for VAT purposes, covering frozen meat on the bone and uncooked offal commonly purchased by low-income households, while excluding processed or ready-to-eat products.
Calls mount
Organisations outside of the poultry industry have also called on chicken to be added to the zero-rated food items list as part of the government’s efforts to support low-income households.
Their arguments largely centre on the potential reduction of malnutrition in children from lower-income households if VAT were removed on chicken.
The Human Sciences Research Council estimates that 28.8% of children are stunted because of a lack of nutritious food and are often physically or mentally handicapped for life.
The FairPlay Movement, which aims to protect South African industries from dumping and predatory trade practices, has called for chicken products to be exempted from VAT in the 2026 Budget Speech.
Its founder, Francois Baird, explained to 702 that chicken, given its extensive consumption in South Africa, offers the government the best attempt at ending malnutrition in South Africa.
Baird said that making chicken VAT-exempt would render the protein source more affordable for low-income households and thus increase their access to animal-based protein.
However, a major issue is that zero-rating chicken would not only benefit low-income households but would also benefit richer South Africans and limit the tax collected from them.
“We have asked for those chicken pieces mostly used by low-income households to be exempted. So, it is not a blanket zero-rating of all chicken consumed,” Baird said.
“The reason we asked for that is because 66% of all meat consumed in South Africa is chicken, making it a basic building block for the health of people.”
Baird explained that child stunting continues to increase in South Africa, with the organisation first calling for chicken to be added to the zero-rated food items list in 2017.
“South Africa is food secure at a national level. It is at a household level where there are issues, with poor people being unable to afford nutritious food,” Baird said.
While there are clear benefits to zero-rating chicken, the National Treasury has repeatedly pointed to the potential loss of tax revenue by adding chicken products to the list.
Its latest calculations show that zero-rating chicken would result in the government losing R2.1 billion in revenue from VAT every year. Ultimately, this was the reason why chicken was not added to the list in 2018.
Furthermore, this is only for analysing the VAT collected on sales of individually quick-frozen poultry parts. Zero-rating all frozen chicken would cost an additional R1 billion.
“Zero-rated products are well targeted. Further zero-rating will lead to VAT revenue loss, which could be directed to the already existing pro-poor government programmes,” Deputy Finance Minister David Masondo said.
“Targeted cash transfer to the poor is better and more redistributive as opposed to VAT, which benefits mostly high-income households.”
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