In the Western Cape the broiler business consists of livestock supply to abattoirs as well as DOC supply to customers. In Gauteng, the broiler business sells DOCs and rears broilers as a contract grower.
Until September 2021, Quantum Foods owned the rights to import pedigree grandparent broiler stock of the Cobb 500 breed, which supplies next generation parent stock for its own requirements and non-exclusively for some customers in some other countries in Africa.
Day-old grandparent chicks were imported and placed on the Group’s grandparent farm in the North West. Next-generation parent day-old chicks continue to be produced at this facility.
From mid-2022, Quantum Foods plans to purchase day-old parent chicks. These day-old parent chicks will be placed on the current grandparent farm, which will be converted to a parent rearing and layer farm, and on the three parent rearing farms in the Western Cape. This will increase parent production capacity and support growth.
The reared parents are then placed on six (seven in 2022) parent layer farms. Of these seven farms, five are owned by the Group and the remaining two are contracted farms that supply the Group with fertile hatching eggs.
Day-old commercial broiler chicks are produced at two hatcheries in the Western Cape and one in North West. The hatchery on the current grandparent farm will be used for the production of day-old commercial broiler chicks from 2022. The day-old chicks are transferred to commercial Company-owned and contract-grower broiler farms or sold to the open market.
