The Ministry of Agriculture and the Guyana Poultry Producers Association (GPPA) are partnering to examine ways in which the poultry industry could remain competitive in the face of exogenous shocks that still plague stakeholders and ultimately affect the purchasing power of consumers. Further, both the Ministry and the Association gave assurances that in no later than six weeks, the prices of chicken and eggs will return to normal.
At a meeting held in the Boardroom of the Ministry of Agriculture yesterday, to address the situation of spiking poultry and egg prices, Minister of Agriculture Robert Persaud said that although Guyana has achieved self-sufficiency in the commodities, the price moves up from time to time and this is a concern for the Government. He said that Government wants to ensure that what is produced is accessed by the consumers. He said that over the last two and a half years, the Government had no need to issue import licenses for the importation of chickens and eggs for consumption.
The Minister said that Cabinet had asked the Ministry of Trade to engage stakeholders as to the reasons for the recent spike in prices for the commodities. Persaud said that he recognized the need for the farmers to preserve their investments and so the decision to issue import licenses will only be made in a situation that could be deemed a crisis, and this is not yet the current state of affairs. He said that the issue might be a more cyclical one and due to the shortage of hatching eggs on the U.S. market.
“I have asked people in the livestock division to see what interventions could be made…we have to ensure that there is no shortfall of production,” he said. The Minister indicated that he will speak to his counterpart Minister in Trinidad and Tobago. The Minister explained that the price movement is not restricted to Guyana.
“We want to work with the Association and the producers,” the Minister said. “We know the constraints but we have to plan our operations and our business with the constraints in mind,” he stressed, saying that the Ministry of Agriculture is closely monitoring the situation.
David Fernandes of the GPPA said that Guyana has three times the capacity in terms of hatcheries than is needed for the Guyana market. He said that it is easy to meet the demand of Guyana’s consumers. He said that at peak demand, like during the Christmas season, Guyana consumes 1.1 million pounds of chicken per week.
He said that the contribution of the small farmers in chicken and egg production is significant and that everything that the Association and the Ministry do must include the interest of the small farmers. He said that the demand for chicken fares better than other meats because there are less religious or cultural barriers as faced by beef and pork.
Fernandes noted that all of the hatcheries buy their hatching eggs from the United States and are subject sometimes to poor quality eggs. He said too that the length of ocean travel and the delays that come with this sometimes cause the eggs to have a lesser percentage of hatchability. At the meeting yesterday, it was revealed that one of businesses, Edun Farms, was investing in a broiler hatchery operation to begin producing its own hatching eggs for the local market in support of other hatcheries.
Fernandes said that with Didco getting back into the hatcheries business, the number of hatching eggs coming into the country is already making an impact on the industry. But he said that there will be some time before the chickens are ready for the market from the eggs procured. “We are not getting the best quality eggs even though we’re paying more,” Fernandes said. He assured that supplies of chicken and eggs will return to normal in about four to six weeks.
Michael Welch of the Ministry’s Animal Services Division said all of the inputs for the industry must be imported and as such the industry is exposed to the exogenous shocks. He said that there needs to be the development of an early warning system to predict shortfalls in production. He said for this reason, the Government is developing a Guyana Livestock Development Agency which will have the resources and the independence to support the industry. Laws and regulations will also be examined to make the industry stronger. He said these steps are being taken with a view to aligning the industry to break into the export market.