Fat Chickens to Result in Losses for South African Poultry Firm
- Production costs exceed chicken sale price, Astral Foods Says
- Earnings per share for six months seen falling as much as 90%
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Astral Foods Ltd., one of South Africa’s biggest chicken producers by revenue, expects its poultry division to incur “significant losses” in the first half of its financial year because of incessant power cuts and high input prices.
Astral couldn’t raise prices as required and “continues to subsidize the increased cost of production to our customer base,” the poultry producer said in a statement on Wednesday. The blackouts — known locally as load-shedding — have delayed slaughtering of birds resulting in heavier and older poultry, according to the statement.