Farm Pride Foods: Bird flu to cost Victorian egg farm up to $23m

One of Australia’s biggest egg producers expects it could lose up to $23 million after being hit by Victoria’s avian influenza outbreak.

Farm Pride Foods expects it will lose about 30 per cent of the company’s productive hen flock.

ONE of Australia’s biggest egg producers and the second egg farm in Victoria to be hit by bird flu is expecting to lose $18 to $23 million.

Farm Pride Foods egg farm at Lethbridge returned positive tests for avian influenza last week, with the ASX-listed company calling for a trading halt last Thursday.

Farm Pride’s hens lay more than 7 million eggs per week, according to its website.

In an ASX statement this morning, the company said the approximate number of hens lost, including cage, free-range and barn, was 340,000 – about 30 per cent of the company’s productive hen flock.

It said the full financial impact was still being determined but the reduction in FY21 net revenue was approximately between $18 to $23 million.

Farm Pride Foods has established a crisis management team to “monitor, assess and provide guidance to its business on a daily basis”.

It said action was already being taken to “reduce costs and rigorously manage cash flow including the reduction of non-essential capital expenditure”.

The company’s share price plunged 20 per cent today to 24 cents, following the announcement.

The first farm to test positive for the highly contagious H7N7 avian influenza virus was on July 31. More than 40,000 birds were culled.

The Weekly Times revealed this morning free-range egg producers in Golden Plains Shire who were legally required to house their birds indoors for a month due to the outbreak would not be punished for continuing to label their eggs free-range.

Any cases of unexplained bird deaths in Victoria should be reported to the 24-hour Emergency Animal Disease Watch Hotline on 1800 675 888.

The Victorian Department of Health and Human Services said the virus was not a risk to the public as it rarely affected humans and there were no food safety issues identified.