SA’s largest supplier of chicken to fast food outlets, restaurants and hotels has said it has failed to meet market demand due to ongoing blackouts in the country.
This could have an effect on businesses in the sector and their ability to meet consumer demand at food outlets.
Eyewitness News reported on Monday the company said it was struggling to keep up with the demand for chicken at fast food restaurants due to ongoing load-shedding.
Astral confirmed supply constraints after several KFC outlets closed their doors temporarily amid shortages.
SA has been drifting through stages 4, 5 and 6 of load-shedding, with 205 days of power cuts in 2022, the highest number on record since load-shedding began in 2008. Even in the festive season when much industrial demand is taken off the grid, Eskom struggled to meet demand.
Stages 5 and 6 power cuts, with blackouts for more than 11 hours a day at times, have made it much harder for the food industry to cope.
As a result, a number of food producers, such as Tiger Brands and PepsiCo SA have reported the negative effect of power outages on their operations.
Astral highlighted the problem in its latest annual report for 2022.
“To add to the economic woes, the unprecedented load-shedding that has taken place since January 2022 and the rapidly deteriorating water infrastructure have made operating in SA extremely difficult.
“The government has simply failed in its duty to provide basic utilities to meet the needs of its people. It is difficult to remain positive and it is widely acknowledged that drastic political change is needed.”
The company did not respond to attempts by Business Day to get comment on Monday.
The poultry producer recorded a direct loss of R126m for the year to end-September 2022 due to power cuts.
The company said in its financials water shortages and load-shedding added R116m to its year-on-year costs.
At the same time, the company said production cutbacks have been implemented, with capital having to be spent on generator capacity.
This has seen consumers pay above-inflation increased prices for chicken.
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