By Anita Dangazele
- Chicken trays at Spar still cost around R44 each but now carry four pieces instead of five, quietly cutting the amount of food a family takes home.
- South Africa’s biggest chicken producer, Astral Foods, grew its profit by 348% in six months while consumers are stretching the same rand to feed the same number of mouths.
The price on the chicken tray has not moved. But the food inside has.
A five-piece tray at one Spar outlet in Gqeberha now comes with four pieces for the same R44. For a family of five, that change does not show up as a higher number at the till. It shows up as not enough food on the table.
One mother who shops at her local Spar used to buy four trays a week to feed her family of five. At R44.39 each, she spent R177.56 a week, R710 a month. That bought 20 pieces of chicken. Today the same R177.56 buys 16 pieces. To get back to 20, she would need five trays. That is R221 a week. R885 a month.
She did not buy chicken at all last week.
This is happening while South Africa’s poultry industry is reporting some of its strongest results in years. Astral Foods, which owns the Festive, County Fair and Mountain Valley brands and produces roughly 27% of all chicken sold locally, reported a profit jump of 348% for the six months to 31 March 2026. Its profit before interest and tax came in at R1.2-billion, up from R271-million in the same period last year.
Poultry producer Quantum Foods also reported strong earnings growth for the same period. But Quantum warned that the next six months will be harder, with fuel costs rising and consumers under more pressure.
Astral’s own results flag the Iranian conflict and rising oil prices as threats to what is left of consumer spending power, on top of unemployment that is already at 32.7%.
The squeeze is not only in the price. It is in the packet. A family that budgeted carefully and bought the same tray every week is now buying less chicken for the same money, with no warning and no label change to say so.
Chicken remains the most affordable protein in South Africa. A kilogram of chicken costs roughly R35. The same amount of beef costs closer to R100. But affordable is a relative word when the portion keeps shrinking.
Pictured above: Chicken trays on a supermarket shelf.
Image source: Pexels
