After several years of operating in a challenging and economically hostile environment, Jamaica Broilers decided to pull the plug on their loss making Haitian operation that once showed promise of long term viability.
The Board of Directors on Wednesday “accepted the recommendation of management to discontinue its operations in Haiti as conducting business in that jurisdiction has become unviable.”
For the fiscal year to April 2022, the Haitian market suffered a big blow, with sales nose-diving 44 percent to $1.3 billion from $2.4 billion in 2021 as that country continues to suffer from economic and social instability.
That segment results showed a worsening outturn with a loss of $365 million, from a loss of just $7 million in 2021. Up to the January quarter, the results showed a loss of just $11 million from revenues of $1.1 billion, but the company made an impairment provision of $141 million for this operation which is charged to cost of sales and administration and other expenses. Overall the group wrote down the value of their investment in Haiti by $904 million to just $308 million. The Haitian operation reported a loss of $83 million in the quarter to July, up from a loss of$48 million in 2021, with revenues of $86 million down from $426 million in 2021.
Revenue for the group in the July quarter this year amounted to $22.98 billion, up 30.5 percent from $17.6 million in 2021, with profit surging 288 percent to $1.1 billion from just $275 million in 2021.
In early trading on the Jamaica Stock Exchange, on Friday, Jamaica Broilers opened at $29.
