July 29, 2008

Tyson's chicken unit may lose more in Q4

Top US meat producer Tyson Foods Inc. said that its chicken unit may report a larger loss in Q4 than the US$44 million lost during Q3 on high feed costs and lag in price increases for chicken.

Tyson Chief Executive Richard Bond said Monday (July 28) that the chicken segment is likely to be in the red for Q4, due to high input costs on feed materials such as corn and soymeal.

On Monday, Tyson reported Q3 earnings of US$9 million, or 3 cents per share, a massive 92-percent plunge from last year's US$111 million, or 31 cents per share.

The company's beef unit also posted lower Q3 profits of US$3 million, down 91.7 percent from last year's takings of US$36 million. The food processing business earned US$6 million, a drop of 77 percent from the US$26 million earned last year.

The pork segment bucked the trend as it posted an increase of earnings, to US$54 million from US$34 million last year. This is likely due to increase in pork exports to countries such as Japan, helped by the weak US dollar.