In an interview ahead of Rainbow’s stock exchange listing this week, Rainbow MD Marthinus Stander stressed what he called the wonders of chicken and said the company focused on keeping prices down.
“Chicken is a wonderful product. It’s versatile and people love it, whether they are buying live chicken or dead chicken,” he said in a radio interview with Biznews. “I believe chicken will be around one day when the lights are switched off, because it’s relevant.”
Stander stressed several times the need for poultry producers to keep chicken affordable.
“We are obsessed with what is happening in the consumer space. That’s why we innovate to see how we can produce the cheapest chicken possible…we have got to stay relevant to the consumer.”
He said that Rainbow’s methodology was to ensure a low cost base throughout their chicken value chain, from feed production to processing and distributing chicken products.
Stander said the chicken industry had a very good case to state – not only did it produce South Africa’s most affordable meat protein, it also created jobs in poor rural areas, and it contributed significantly to the country’s food security. The local industry was “a very good grower of chicken compared to anywhere in the world.”
On the future of the industry, he said there was “definitely a positive outlook at the moment. The issue is how it will play out over time”.
The same could be said for Rainbow. Investors will be watching the share and waiting for Rainbow’s first results statement to see how it has performed compared to the objectives it set.
