JOHANNESBURG - Chicken prices are going to rise further.
That’s the warning from the country’s biggest poultry producer, Astral Foods, as it battles to contain high input costs, including feed and energy.
The company says it will have to inject R200-million into alternative energy and water storage resources.
This as rolling blackouts and water shortages affect its operations.
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Astral has been absorbing the bulk of the input costs over the past six months, which it says is not sustainable.
The company’s CEO Chris Schutte says although full-year profit came 126 percent higher than the prior year, prolonged power cuts and dilapidated municipal infrastructure is painting a worrying outlook.