Africa Poultry Market Report: Trends, Growth and Forecast (2026-2032)

South Africa Emerged as the Largest Regional Market Grabbing Around 16% Market Share

South Africa is estimated to produce 1.68 million tons of chicken meat in 2026, up 2% on the year, as the industry fully recovers from the 2023 HPAI outbreak and benefits from lower feed prices following a strong local grain harvest. Chicken meat consumption is forecast to reach 1.92 million tons in 2026 and already makes up 60% of total meat consumption in the country. Imports are forecast to fall 5% to 308,000 tons in 2026 as tariffs and anti-dumping duties limit competition, while exports are forecast to rise 5% to 65,000 tons, sent mostly to neighboring Southern African Customs Union countries. The poultry industry contributes 15% of South Africa's total agricultural production, with a gross value of 65.77 billion rand, roughly USD 3.6 Billion at current exchange rates, and the industry invested 2.1 billion rand between 2019 and 2023 to expand production facilities. Per capita chicken consumption has slipped from a peak near 41 kilograms a year to about 35 kilograms in 2024, as cost pressure pushes lower income consumers toward cheaper cuts such as offal and mechanically deboned meat.

Egypt has moved past self-sufficiency, with 98% of poultry meat demand and all egg demand met domestically. The country raised about 1.4 billion broiler chickens on specialized farms in 2024, and total production ran roughly 30% ahead of consumption needs, pushing prices down for consumers. The market is anchored by large integrators such as Wadi Group and Cairo Poultry Company, beneath which sits a long tail of smaller, fragmented producers. A reliable continent wide USD value figure specific to Egypt's poultry market is not available from primary production data, though the scale of output, close to 1.4 billion birds a year plus 15.5 billion eggs, places it among the largest poultry economies in Africa by volume.

Morocco produced about 653,000 tonnes of poultry in the most recent year reported, ranking third in Africa behind only Egypt and South Africa, with the three countries together supplying nearly 64% of all poultry meat produced on the continent. Moroccans eat about 20.9 kilograms of chicken a year. The sector supports roughly 500,000 jobs and generates about 45 billion dirhams in sales, roughly USD 4.6 Billion at current exchange rates, making up roughly a quarter of the country's farm economy. Rather than compete on bulk frozen meat, Morocco has built an export business in day old chicks and hatching eggs, with trade to Mali and Benin alone crossing USD 170 Million in 2026. Zalar Holding and Koutoubia Holding are the sector's dominant integrated groups.

Africa Poultry Market Drivers, Trends and Opportunities

Drivers

• South Africa's tariff and anti-dumping regime, including a 62% duty on bone in chicken and duties up to 265% on Brazilian imports, is protecting a domestic production run that is forecast to reach 1.68 million tons in 2026, even as the industry recovers from its worst HPAI outbreak on record.
• Egypt's production surplus, running close to 30% ahead of domestic consumption in 2024, is pushing farm gate prices down and strengthening the country's position as a low cost regional supplier.
• Quick service restaurant growth, led by KFC's more than 1,000 outlets across the continent, is standardizing broiler supply contracts and pulling demand out of unstructured wet markets and into formal, volume committed channels across all three focus markets.
• Morocco's export business in day old chicks and hatching eggs, with trade to Mali and Benin alone crossing USD 170 Million in 2026, shows how a producer with a strong genetics base can grow beyond its own borders without competing on bulk frozen meat.
• Urbanization and population growth across the continent, with Africa's population set to grow from 1.4 billion to 2.5 billion by 2050, keep underlying demand for affordable poultry protein rising in all three markets.

Trends

• Vertical integration from feed milling through processing remains the default model among South Africa's, Morocco's and Egypt's leading groups, protecting margins from the currency driven feed cost swings that remain the sector's biggest source of earnings volatility.
• Biosecurity investment is rising sharply after repeated HPAI shocks. South Africa's 2023 outbreak alone culled close to 10 million birds, and fresh outbreaks in mid 2025 pushed the government to propose a vaccination program for breeder and layer flocks, though producers had not yet begun vaccinating as of the latest report because of cost concerns.
• South Africa's own data shows a clear shift in what gets imported once tariffs bite, mechanically deboned meat rose from 37% of poultry imports in 2019 to 63% by 2024, as buyers moved toward the cheapest available cuts once bone in and whole bird imports became too expensive to compete with local supply.
• Genetics upgrades are reshaping production economics, South Africa's broiler industry moved almost entirely from the Cobb breed to the Indian River breed by 2023 for stronger feed conversion and meat yield.

Opportunities

• South Africa's Phase 2 Poultry Value Chain Masterplan is pushing toward cooked and heat treated poultry exports, with a United Kingdom market access audit already completed and further work underway toward Saudi Arabia and the European Union.
• Egypt's ongoing production surplus opens a clear opportunity to build export capacity and processing infrastructure aimed at nearby regional markets rather than relying solely on domestic absorption.
• Morocco's breeding stock and hatching egg export model into West Africa offers a repeatable regional hub approach that other advanced producers such as South Africa and Egypt could copy to earn higher margin trade rather than competing directly with Brazilian bulk meat.
• Certification and market access infrastructure for Africa's large free range flock, which already covers roughly 80% of the continent's birds by some estimates, remains almost entirely undeveloped, leaving open a clear opportunity in aggregation, certification and cold chain logistics to connect already organic style village production to premium urban retail.

Unmet Needs

Feed Security and Local Grain Supply

Feed can account for 60% to 80% of production cost in fully intensive systems, and South Africa's own broiler industry alone reports feed at 70% of total production expense. Because much of this feed relies on imported maize and soybean meal priced against hard currency, producer margins across South Africa, Egypt and Morocco all stay exposed to exchange rate swings and global grain price cycles. Local grain production and crushing capacity have not scaled fast enough to close this gap, leaving even the continent's most advanced producers structurally dependent on imported feed inputs.

Disease Control and Vaccination Capacity

South Africa's 2023 HPAI event culled close to 10 million birds, and fresh outbreaks hit the Northwest, Mpumalanga and Western Cape provinces again in mid 2025, showing that disease control capacity, not demand, is now the binding constraint on growth even in the continent's most developed poultry market. South Africa's own vaccination rollout for breeder and layer flocks has stalled because producers see the compliance rules as too costly, with only Astral Foods attempting to comply so far on a single flock. Closing this gap needs funding support and simpler rollout rules, not just a vaccination policy on paper.