– says 18,000 earn livelihoods in industry, advocates for expansion

GENERAL SECRETARY of the People’s Progressive Party/Civic (PPP/C), Dr Bharrat Jagdeo, has called out Opposition Leader Aubrey Norton for his ridiculous commentary on the imported chicken ban and his lack of understanding of the local poultry sector.

On Thursday at his weekly press conference, Dr Jagdeo said that the narrative being peddled by Norton shows that he is not interested in the development of the local industry.
He also disclosed that before the ban, farmers had contacted him and complained about the surge in imported poultry and how it was affecting their livelihoods.

Moreover, the General Secretary said Guyana produces about 140 million pounds of chicken.

“We have about 18,000 people now who earn a livelihood in this industry, so Norton wants to take that away from them to allow the imported chicken to come in again, or the chicken to be smuggled in to kill the livelihood of all of these farmers and people who are employed in this sector; kill local production,” Dr Jagdeo voiced.

Additionally, he squashed Norton’s baseless presumption that the administration does not have a comprehensive policy and then reflected on the myriad of works being done by the PPP/C to enhance the poultry sector.

Some of these works include granting access to land for five additional large poultry farms, the allowance of hatcheries and everything to come in duty-free, and all of the poultry inputs and veterinary supplies for the industry being zero-rated.

The General Secretary also said that upon the PPP/C returning to office, they noticed that the local poultry industry was facing a considerable constraint, during the pandemic, for inputs into feed production since there is a lot of corn and soy used.

“So we met with all the poultry farmers, the President convened a meeting. I was there with all the large poultry farmers and we said we have to work together to produce the corn and soy here,” Dr Jagdeo remarked, adding, “They have started that project. It’s growing now and within three years we’d be self-sufficient with corn and soy.”

He said, “We’re trying to break down the phytosanitary barriers across the Caribbean. So we can now have our poultry products go into those markets that are highly regulated, and then also we can open up export markets or industry,” explaining that Norton’s complaint on the ban is trying to destroy the local industry.