ASTRAL FOODS LIMITED - Operational update

Operational update

ASTRAL FOODS LIMITED
“Astral Foods”
(Reg. No. 1978/003194/06)
(Incorporated in the Republic of South Africa)
Share Code: ARL
ISIN Code: ZAE000029757

OPERATIONAL UPDATE

Astral Foods reported an outbreak of Highly Pathogenic Avian
Influenza (HPAI) H5N8 in June 2017 affecting one of its poultry
breeding farms in Villiers. Despite extreme measures taken to
reduce the risk of any further infections on any other Astral
farms, a second outbreak of H5N8 was confirmed on 1 August 2017
on an Astral poultry breeding facility known as Welbedacht,
situated on the banks of the Grootdraai dam just outside
Standerton in Mpumalanga.

Astral would like to update shareholders on the situation
regarding the HPAI infection reported on the Welbedacht farm.
It was previously reported that the outbreak on Welbedacht was
isolated to one poultry shed on the farm, and that the outbreak
was being managed in an effort to contain the spread of the
infection to the rest of the farm. Astral can report that
notwithstanding a huge effort and numerous measures implemented
to contain the infection to the one affected shed, the
infection has spread to other sheds on the farm. The farm
remains under quarantine and Astral has depopulated the
affected sheds.

To date the cost of the most recent outbreak, together with the
cost of the first outbreak at Villiers that occurred in June
2017, amounts to R50 million.

Notwithstanding the two outbreaks experienced by Astral, all
the contingency plans have ensured continued supply of hatching
eggs and broiler day old chicks to the broiler farms, and as
such will not have any impact on broiler supply to Astral’s
poultry processing plants or the supply of chicken to the
market. All stakeholders are reminded that this infection has
impacted breeding stock and not broiler birds destined for meat
production.
The information on which the operational update is based has
not been reviewed and reported on by Astral Foods’ auditors.

Pretoria
24 August 2017

Nedbank Corporate and Investment Banking, a division of Nedbank
Limited
Sponsor

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