Poultry group Rainbow Chicken lifted diluted headline earnings per share from 109.6 cents to 119.7 cents for the year ended March, reports Fast Moving.

This was on the back of a 2.1 per cent increase in revenue from 6.8 billion rand (ZAR) to ZAR7 billion, largely as a result of significantly lower feed selling prices and volumes sold external to Rainbow.

Rainbow's average price realisations decreased by 2.7 per cent and volumes were 5.1 per cent higher.

A final dividend of 48 cents per share was declared compared to 44 cents for the previous year. This brought the total dividend for the year to 76 cents per share, which was an increase of 11.8 per cent on the previous year's 68 cents.

Looking ahead, the group said that maize and soy prices are likely to remain at the lower levels with excellent crops expected locally and in Argentina. The exchange rate is expected to remain volatile, while feed prices are expected to decline but remain higher than historical levels.

Chicken realisations are also expected to remain under pressure as a result of sluggish domestic demand, additional local production capacity and the current higher levels of imports.

Energy rate cost increases, driven largely by oil and the approved electricity rate increase, are not expected to be fully recovered in chicken realisations, Rainbow told Fast Moving.