Olympics-Games hunger helps S.Korean chicken stocks weather storm

Harim Co

07/02/2018 05:23

By Jane Chung 
    SEOUL, Feb 7 (Reuters) - South Korea's chicken industry is 
weathering global turmoil in stock markets, thanks to the winter 
Olympics. 
    Investors are betting that millions of Koreans will feast on 
fried chicken, a staple for sports fans, as they watch the 
country host its first winter Games in homes and bars. 
    Further heightening interest for local TV audiences, arch 
rival North Korea is sending a team to Pyeongchang, a ski resort 
near the heavily militarised border. 
    South Korea's main chicken related shares -- Harim Co. 
 136480.KQ , Maniker  027740.KS  and Dongwoo Farm to Table 
 088910.KQ  -- have outperformed the broader local market so far 
this year, having weathered a sell-off in stocks world-wide. 
    Harim is up 13.3 percent, Maniker 5.3 percent and Dongwoo 2 
percent, all faring better than the benchmark Kospi  .KS11  
index which is down around 0.6 percent. 
    "Demand is likely to grow because people will order fried 
chicken to watch the games and this will have a positive impact 
on the stocks," said Lee Kyung-ju, an analyst at Korea 
Investment & Securities. 
    Prime-time scheduling of South Korea's favoured sports will 
also help, he said, noting that speed skating events were set to 
be aired in the evenings. 
    A Harim spokesman said the firm expected a jump in chicken 
demand this week, with some events starting ahead of Friday's 
official opening ceremony, and would keep a close eye on stocks 
to ensure it can keep up supplies. 
    South Korean chicken consumption is expected to rise to 14.2 
kg per capita this year from 13.6 kg in 2017, thanks to the 
Olympics and other major sports events such as the World Cup, 
according to a report by the Korea Rural Economic Institute. 
    Kwak Sung-kwon, company director at Genesis BBQ, the 
country's top fried chicken franchise, said winter weather also 
piqued appetites for fried chicken. 
    "It's cold so delivery orders increase a lot," Kwak said. 
    Fried chicken and beer are a combination known as chimaek, a 
sports bar classic that came of age here in 2002 when South 
Korea co-hosted the World Cup with Japan. 
 
 (Additional reporting by Dahee Kim and Cynthia Kim; Editing by 
Mark Bendeich) 
 ((jane.chung@thomsonreuters.com; +82 2 3704 5667; Reuters 
Messaging: jane.chung.thomsonreuters.com@reuters.net)) 
 
Keywords: OLYMPICS 2018/SOUTHKOREA CHICKEN