Continuing oversupply of poultry has pulled down chicken prices to lowest in eight years and hurt related corporate profits, an institute report showed Wednesday.

According to the findings by the Korea Rural Economic Institute, 966.96 million chickens were slaughtered last year, 9.2 percent more than the previous year.


The slaughter has been increasing at an annual average of 7.8 percent since 1990, and such increase resulted in the chicken price hitting the lowest since 2007 in September last year at 1,118 won ($0.94) per kilogram.

The average price of chicken for 2015 was 5.7 percent down from the year before. 

Poultry consumption, however, has not grown and actually fell 5.6 percent last year from the prior year, the report said, with the monthly household purchase of chicken averaging at 1.7kg. More than 12 million chickens are stored frozen at warehouses as of the end of last year, it said.

Profits for poultry-related listed companies consequently have dipped. The operating profit for Harim in third quarter 2015 was 2.26 billion won in red. Dongwoo registered minus 1.72 billion won for the same period and Maniker minus 2.55 billion won.

The report projected repeated oversupply this year despite the glut, estimating a 22.9 percent increase in the slaughter from January-August compared to the yearly average for the same period. (Yonhap)