SA’S FAT-CHICKEN CRISIS IS GETTING WORSE, SAYS POULTRY GIANT
JOHANNESBURG - SA’s largest poultry producer, Astral Foods, said on Monday its shortage of smaller-sized chicken portions for the fast-food restaurant sector had worsened since December amid continuing load shedding.
There isn’t a lack of chickens – instead, chicken houses are full of birds that cannot be slaughtered due to electricity outages. As they wait, the chickens are getting heavier.
Fast-food outlets typically require chickens of around 1.8kg. But many now weigh more than 2.4kg, one poultry farmer said.
In December, KCF was forced to temporarily close some outlets due to problems with chickens.
Astral said the situation has worsened since December as more regular Stage 6 load shedding is implemented.
“Currently, it is difficult to find birds in the weight ranges required for QSR (quick-service restaurant) production,” said Astral, while adding that it couldn’t comment on behalf of
the entire industry.
The group said it had commissioned diesel back-up generators at all its processing sites in February 2023, but there was still a backlog of large live birds
on farms.
Astral said that once the backlog had been completely addressed, “QSR production should normalise.”
Spur Corporation CEO Val
Nichas said on Monday that the group, which owns brands such as its namesake steakhouse, RocoMamas and John Dory’s, had mitigated the chicken supply crisis by using a combination of larger and some smaller chicken suppliers.
“The biggest challenge has been the supply of wings and leg quarters, but this has been mitigated via this portfolio of chicken suppliers. Our specifications have not been compromised at all in this process.”
Nichas says many suppliers have ramped up their generator capacity in recent months, but this – along with running costs, including diesel – could results in price hikes of nine percent to 10 percent.
Doug Place, chief marketing officer for Nando’s Africa Middle East and South Asia, told News24 last week that while the restaurant industry was under similar if not more pressure from a supply point of view that it experienced in December, Nando’s was not likely to run out of stock.