Quantum Foods informed its shareholders on Friday that it had detected a bird flu outbreak on the company’s farms in Gauteng and the North-West province, but its full financial effect on the company was not yet known.
The South African poultry industry is currently being ravaged by an outbreak of highly pathogenic avian influenza (bird flu), which is an airborne disease.
In a statement, the group said the highly pathogenic avian influenza outbreak to date had affected approximately 1.5 million of the company’s layer and breeding stock.
"Shareholders are reminded that an HPAI outbreak also affected approximately 420 000 layer birds at the Lemoenkloof layer farm in the Western Cape in April 2023," it said.
Quantum Foods said the overall impact of the HPAI outbreak on the South African poultry industry, and its full financial effect on the company, was not yet known as this would be dependent on the volume of eggs available for sale going forward, however, as of September 21, 2023, the estimated value of the company’s birds affected by the HPAI outbreak was R106 million.
"The impact of this further HPAI outbreak on the company’s operations to date appears to be confined to the northern parts of South Africa, and the company’s operations in the Western Cape and the Eastern Cape are currently unaffected," it said.
The group said that considering the HPAI outbreak, shareholders were further advised that for the financial year ending September 30, 2023, a reasonable degree of certainty existed that headline earnings per share (Heps) of the company would be at least 100%, or 14.1 cents, lower than the 14.1 cents reported for the financial year ended September 30, 2022; and earnings per share (Eps) would be at least 100%, or 12.0 cents, lower than the 12.0 cents reported or the previous corresponding period.
"This implies that for the current reporting period, the company is expected to report a loss for both Heps and Eps," it said.
Meanwhile, Astral Foods last week also reported an outbreak of avian flu as it also released a voluntary trading statement that reported that the company expects to post a loss this year as it expects to foot a bill of R919m for the remainder of the financial year to mitigate against load shedding.
The JSE-listed company said that its eps for the year ended September could decrease by as much as 165%, amounting to a loss of R18.08 a piece, compared to Eeps of R27.81 reported in the prior financial year.
Its share price ended Friday up 11.63% at R4.66.
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