South African chicken producers are winning big as cattle farmers feel the pain

South Africa’s biggest chicken producers are capitalising on increased demand for poultry as foot-and-mouth disease (FMD) impacts cattle farming across the country. 

This has seen their profits soar as rising demand pushes prices higher, providing another tailwind for the sector as it bounced back from the Avian Flu outbreak over the past few years. 

The latest giant to ride this wave is Quantum Foods, which revealed a 21% rise in headline earnings per share for the six months ended 31 March 2026. 

This was on the back of a 18% rise in operating profit to R241 million, despite revenue declining by 5% to R3.4 billion. 

Quantum Foods explained that this result was driven by improving trading conditions during the six-month period. 

In contrast to cattle farmers with FMD, the Avian Flu outbreak over the past few years is largely under control. Quantum said the last case of the disease occurred in November 2025. 

The scourge of FMD in South Africa has seen demand for other sources of protein rise sharply as beef prices rise amid limited supply. 

This boosted Quantum’s performance and was coupled with lower feed input costs and a general improvement in service delivery, particularly relating to electricity. 

The improved performance was mainly seen in Quantum’s broiler farming business, which saw volumes rise by 3.3% year-on-year. 

This was enhanced by the company’s investments in farming efficiencies, particularly feed conversion ratios. 

Quantum is on the front foot in this business, with it converting a broiler breeder farm in the Western Cape into a fully-fledged broiler farm. It said this will add 6% to its overall live bird capacity. 

The strong performance from this business segment offset struggles in Quantum’s layer farming operations and feed business. 

Total feed volumes supplied fell by 2.6% year-on-year due to lower external sales volumes amid aggressive competitor activity. 

This translated into external revenue falling by 8% year-on-year to R1.57 billion for this business unit. 

Chicken producers capitalising

Quantum’s strong results follow those of one of its main competitors, Astral Foods, which reported an exceptional performance for the first half of its 2026 financial year. 

Astral more than quadrupled its earnings off a low base thanks to improved margins in its poultry division, lower costs, and improved operaitonal efficiencies. 

The group’s revenue rose by 11.4% to R11.94 billion, while its cost of sales decreased by 0.6% to R9.11 billion.

This allowed the group’s profit for the six months to grow by 392.6% to R895.54 million.

Its earnings per share grew by 391.7% to 2,321 cents, while its headline earnings per share rose by 466.7% to 2,318 cents.

Astral acknowledged that its results benefited from a lower base, with the first half of its 2025 financial year marked by lower selling prices and higher input costs.

In contrast, the first half of the 2026 financial year benefited from lower poultry feed costs, disciplined cost management, and improved operational efficiencies through Astral’s poultry processing plants.

Compared to Quantum, Astral’s feed business reported strong growth with volumes up 9.8% year-on-year. This was partly boosted by strong internal demand. 

This division’s operating profit increased by 23.3% to R366 million, aided by effective cost management and improved margins.

Similarly, Astral’s Poultry Division saw its revenue up 14% to R10.1 billion, resulting from strong demand for its products.

This division benefited from a particularly low comparative base, having made an operating loss in the first half of the 2025 financial year.

Now, the division reported an operating profit of R848 million, compared to a loss of R26 million, driven by optimising broiler production capacity and enhanced operational efficiencies.

On the back of these strong results and relatively positive outlook, Astral declared an interim dividend of 1,160 cents per share.