How poultry producer Astral Foods recovered from a devastating 2023 gripped by Avian flu and loadshedding
The poultry industry suffered massive losses in 2023 due to power cuts and the country's worst bird flu outbreak.
Stephen Grootes speaks to Chris Schutte, CEO at Astral Foods.
Listen to the interview in the audio player below.
A year ago, Astral Foods recorded a loss of R13.24 a share.
Fast-forward 12 months, South Africa's biggest poultry producer has posted an annual profit which jumped by 6.4% to R20.5 billion.
In 2023, South Africa was in the grips of the country's worst-ever outbreak of bird flu coupled devastating power cuts, contributing to the company's first-ever loss in its 24-year history.
An estimated 10 million chickens were lost during the bird flu outbreak in South Africa.
Speaking to Stephen Grootes on The Money Show, Chris Schutte, CEO at Astral Foods says last year they were spending R45m a month on diesel due to regulars power cuts.
To make matters worse, he says the avian influenza wiped out the majority of their birds.
"The avian influenza wiped out about 80% of our breeding stock, but this year round we had no incidents reported on the avian influenza and much less loadshedding. However, we still have power interruptions in the smaller towns."
- Chris Schutte, CEO - Astral Foods
"We spend a lot of money on reservoirs and a reverse osmosis plant, which means that the water we use from the infrastructure we clean and reuse so we can recover about 60% of the water that we use."
- Chris Schutte, CEO - Astral Foods
"During that period, we call it the 'big bird era', we lost market in certain markets, because the birds were so big couldn't supply the QSR (Quick Service Restaurants) market, who wants specific cuts and sizes and portion sizes."
- Chris Schutte, CEO - Astral Foods
Scroll to the top of the article to listen to the full interview.