Latest news with #HighPathogenicAvianInfluenza
IOL News
27-05-2025
- Business
- IOL News
Quantum Foods adapts strategy amid high risk of avian influenze outbreak in South Africa
The South African Poultry Association warns there is a high risk of a High Pathogenic Avian Influenza (HPAI) outbreak in South Africa, given the outbreaks in many other parts of the world. Image: Supplied Quantum Foods said the risk of a highly Pathogenic Avian Influenza (HPAI) outbreak in South Africa is high, given outbreaks in many other parts of the world, and the group has adapted its strategy to lessen its risk to the disease. The JSE-listed diversified feed, poultry, and egg business operating in South Africa, Zambia, Uganda, and Mozambique said on Friday it is placing less of its layer hens in areas that have a higher risk of HPAI, and is sourcing hatching eggs from geographically diverse breeder farms due to the escalating risks of an HPAI outbreak. 'The risk of an HPAI outbreak is regarded as very high for the remainder of the 2025 financial year, with an increased number of outbreaks reported in recent months in the US, Europe, North Africa, and West Africa,' CEO Adel van der Merwe and chairman Andre Hanekom said in the interim results for the six months to March 31, which were released on Friday. The directors said that stringent protocols for voluntary vaccination against HPAI that have been published by the South African government are prohibitive and, to the best of their knowledge, no producers have been successful in their applications to vaccinate poultry. 'In the absence of vaccination, HPAI will remain a key risk factor that will continue to affect poultry businesses going forward, resulting in major uncertainty for the poultry industry, which could severely impact earnings,' Van der Merwe and Hanekom said. They said that total egg production in South Africa is steadily increasing as the national flock recovers from the outbreaks of HPAI in 2023 and 2024. The South African Poultry Association has forecast national egg production to be at pre-2023 HPAI outbreak levels by mid-2025, in the absence of any new HPAI outbreaks. 'Egg selling prices decreased towards the end of the reporting period and are expected to decrease further in the second half of the year to September 30, 2025,' Van der Merwe and Hanekom said. They noted that trading conditions for the company had improved significantly in the six months, although this was compared to the same period a year before, when an outbreak of HPAI had impacted the company's birds to the value of about R37 million. The HPAI outbreaks in 2023 and 2024 not only negatively affected earnings in the previous reporting period, but it also resulted in reduced volumes of livestock, hatching eggs, and table eggs, as well as significant cleaning and disinfecting costs to prepare affected farms for future placement. Additionally, there were a number of loadshedding hours in the previous period. The reduction in load shedding hours in the six months under review resulted in lower generator fuel costs and fewer disruptions in the supply of feed raw material items. On December 26, 2024, a crowd forcibly entered a layer farm and looted about 16% of the layer birds. No injuries to staff occurred, and operations were able to resume soon after the incident. However, the hens looted and the resultant lower egg production, further impacted by a disruption in planned vaccinations, contributed to lower earnings from this business in the reporting period. Notwithstanding this, interim headline earnings per share increased sharply to 74.8 cents, up from 21.7 cents reported in the previous reporting period. No interim dividend was declared. Group revenue increased 19.6% to R3.6 billion, with a 20.1% increase (R560m) in the South African operations' revenue and a 13.8% increase (R31m) in the other African operations' revenue. The animal feeds segment increased by 14.1% (R212m) from the previous reporting period, primarily driven by an 11.3% increase in external volumes sold. The farming segment increased by 15.5% (R137m), mainly due to higher volumes of layer livestock sold. The egg segment increased by 52.4% (R212 m), with the 14.1% average egg selling price decrease being offset by the increase in sales volumes of 78.4%. Revenue from the other African operations increased, primarily due to the increased volumes of eggs sold at higher selling prices in Zambia and increased volumes of feed sold in both Uganda and Zambia. A positive margin from higher egg volumes, high operational efficiency at egg packing stations, effective cost management, and improved overhead cost recovery outweighed the negative effect of a 14.1% decline in average egg selling prices. Visit:
Yahoo
11-02-2025
- Health
- Yahoo
Egg price bill advances at Nevada Legislature; AB171 could increase supply in 30 days
LAS VEGAS (KLAS) — A bill aimed at reducing the skyrocketing price of eggs in Nevada advanced on Monday, but the legislative process will take some time even if there's no opposition. If it sails through, when is the soonest that Nevadans could see results? Nevada Department of Agriculture Director J.J. Goicoechea said it could mean that supplies increase in as little as a month. From there, prices should respond to supply and demand. For now, Assembly Bill 171 (AB171) has made its first step in lightning speed, unanimously passing a voice vote in a work session of the Assembly Committee on Natural Resources. It's now headed for the Assembly floor for a vote. The Assembly will not convene until late Tuesday morning. AB171 now has an amendment crafted by the Humane Society of the United States. The amendment gives the Department of Agriculture power to write additional regulations if the situation comes up again under different circumstances. What does AB171 do that could possibly change the price of eggs? It loosens a law made four years ago in the Nevada Legislature by Assemblymember Howard Watts (D-Clark County). It's no coincidence that Watts is a primary sponsor of AB171, looking to make an exception to the rules that he helped write in 2021. AB399 prohibited the production or sale of eggs in Nevada that weren't the product of cage-free chickens. The current egg supply problems are due to avian flu. 'Since 2022, roughly 20 million egg-laying chickens have died or been culled as a result of this disease outbreak. And that's created a really significant supply chain crunch and issue,' Watts told the Assembly committee. Nevada's first human case of avian flu confirmed in Churchill County A USDA report released on Jan. 16 said table egg-layers lost to High Pathogenic Avian Influenza (HPAI) totaled 13.6 million birds in December alone. AB171 allows the Department of Agriculture's quarantine officer to suspend the cage-free law for 120 days under certain circumstances, and that could be done twice in a calendar year. That would open up sources for eggs that Nevada doesn't allow under current law. Goicoechea said Iowa, Indiana and Ohio are all states where Nevada gets eggs now, but it can't buy eggs that aren't cage-free. Under AB171, those states could sell more eggs to Nevada. The Humane Society amendment further allows Grade B eggs if necessary. It also would allow use of eggs from small operations in Nevada. The state currently has no commercial-scale egg operations, Goicoechea said. The amendment concerned some lawmakers who said the language was too open, and that was addressed before the work session concluded. Why 120 days? It's not a random choice, Goicoechea said: 'The absolute fastest that we can bring a pullet on to laying eggs would be 126 days. So, I could have went a lot longer and scientifically backed that up, but there are always pullets in the supply chain coming on. This isn't a hard stop, hard start, hard stop.' Support for AB171 came in testimony from the Sierra Club, Nevada Farm Bureau, Retail Association of Nevada, Vegas Chamber, Nevada Resort Association, Nevada Restaurant Association, Nevada Families for Freedom, Energy and Convenience Association of Nevada and the Independent American Party. Everyone appears to recognize the impact egg prices are having on consumers. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
