Two of South Africa’s poultry producers – Astral Foods and RCL Foods – are among the top 50 producers in the world, according to annual rankings produced by WATTPoultry International.
The rankings are based on the number of birds slaughtered annually. The list is headed by two Brazilian companies – JBS S.A. and BRF – which annually slaughter 4.4 billion and 2.1 billion birds respectively. Third was Tyson Foods of the United States, with 1.9 billion birds.
The size of the massive Brazilian and US producers is shown by the fact that South Africa’s leading producer, Astral, comes 38th with 260 million birds slaughtered, and RCL is 49th with 202 million.
South African companies dominate the top 50 African rankings. Astral and RCL are first and second, with Country Bird fourth (74 million), Sovereign fifth (70 million), Daybreak seventh (50 million) and Quantum Foods eighth (44.7 million).
Brazil remains the world’s leading chicken producer. Brazil’s four companies in the world top 50 slaughtered a total of 7.18 billion birds, while 13 US companies together accounted for 6.8 billion chickens slaughtered.
