South Africa’s two largest poultry producers are both reporting profits this year that are double those of 2025.
Rainbow, the second-largest producer, reported in August that headline earnings per share were up 130%, and that operating profit had increased by 150%.
Now Astral, the country’s biggest poultry producer, is about to report results for the year to the end of September. The company said in a trading statement ahead of the results announcement that it expected headline earnings per share to be up by between 95% and 105%.
Both companies reported that this year’s results were boosted by lower feed costs. Grain prices were low this year due to good rains and record harvests. Feed amounts to 70% of the cost of producing a chicken, and when grain prices drop, profits go up.
The reverse is also true. Rainbow warned in August that the possibility of extreme weather is one of the risks it is watching.
Poultry is a cyclical business, with the good years having to cover the losses of the bad years, when high feed prices, avian flu and load-shedding pushed producers into substantial losses.
We will see in Astral’s results statement in November how it views prospects for 2027, when grain prices are expected to be pushed up by hotter, drier weather, and even drought, under the influence of the coming El Niño weather phenomenon.
