Workers on the production line at the Jamaica Broilers Processing Plant, Spring Village, St. Catherine, are seen in this January 18 'Gleaner' photo. The company says it expects a five per cent erosion of expected quarterly profits as a result of Hurrican Dean. - File

Jamaica Broilers Groupsustained "no significant loss", and all areas of operation are up and running, according to Chief Financial Officer Ian Parsad.

The new ethanol plant at Port Esquivel, he said, was back on track at 7:00 p.m. on the day after Hurricane Dean. Chicken losses were also minimal, with 20,000 to 30,000 birds lost in the field, a fraction of the poultry producer's throughput.

Loss of grain

Parsard notes, however, that the surviving birds might have suffered some trauma, which may have a mild additional affect on output.

The company also had some loss of corn and grain due to damage to a warehouse, but will have "more than enough" grain to continue normal operations.

Parsard said that Broilers will not see much reduction in sales.

The group is fully insured against loss of property, but there was "no property damage" to trigger its business interruption insurance, said Parsard.

The Broilers executive estimates that going forward, group sales will not see much reduction, but he estimates that the hurricane damage will erase about 5.0 per cent of expected profits for the quarter.

Not like 'Ivan'

The impact of 'Dean' was "nothing even close to what happened in 'Ivan'.

"Everything is intact and pretty much back to normal," the top executive explained.

According to him, net earnings should round out to just about the same as the second quarter of 2006. The company then recorded net profit of $131.7 million off sales of $2.45 billion.

keithcollister@gleanerjm.com