Power crisis, bird flu trigger imminent chicken shortage in South Africa

South Africa faces chicken shortages in the coming months as a bird flu outbreak and persistent electricity cuts ravage the poultry industry, the country’s largest producer Astral Foods says.

“The bird flu has already caused short supplies of table eggs into the market, and it is expected that the supply of poultry meat into the value chain could be affected negatively in the coming months,” Astral said.

Africa’s most advanced economy is enduring frequent electricity cuts blamed on its ageing coal-fired fleet of power plants. State-owned utility Eskom is routinely reducing power supply to businesses and households for several hours daily, a process locally called load shedding.