–President Ali engages stakeholders, commits to long-term support to address critical needs

SEVERAL poultry stakeholders will again meet with Guyana’s Head-of-state, Dr Irfaan Ali, next week to discuss a number of issues affecting this critical industry.

Earlier in the week, Dr Ali met with farmers who indicated that they are facing challenges.

At that meeting, the President committed to facilitating broader discussions with farmers from across the country.

Agriculture Minister Zulfikar Mustapha, during an invited comment on Friday, said that several farmers have outlined difficulties created by a disease in some poultry animals
“We met with them, some of them claimed that they had a problem with the hepatitis, so we will work with them, we will bring them together,” Mustapha said.

He further reminded that Guyana is self-sufficient in producing its own poultry products and the government will remain committed to seeing the industry grow.

“We are self-sufficient in poultry products and we don’t want that to decline, we want that to improve and that is why all the small farmers, the President would have met with them and we will have a national conference on July 7.”

At the upcoming meeting, farmers will be given a chance to raise their concerns and lead discussions on the current state of the poultry industry, as well as deliberate on short, medium and long-term solutions, including how to make the sector more competitive and the type of support government could provide.

Recently, the Guyana Livestock Development Authority (GLDA) banned the importation of poultry or poultry products into the country.

In a previous interview with this publication, Mustapha said that there is no reason for Guyana to import poultry or poultry products.

“Normally, we don’t import poultry and poultry products. We are self-sufficient; we have enough in the country. There are a number of areas and farmers, so we don’t have a ban but the GLDA is not giving permits because we have enough in the country,” the Agriculture Minister said, noting that efforts have to be made to also protect farmers.

He reiterated: “We have to protect our farmers because we have sufficient [poultry] in the country. And I think that there is no need to import poultry products and poultry meats presently.”
It was also previously reported that Guyana spent about US$4.7 million importing poultry products in 2020, with a notable demand for sausages.

A detailed analysis of the agricultural sector and imports of several countries within the Caribbean Community (CARICOM) revealed that nearly all of the poultry meat consumed in the region in 2020 was imported at the cost of millions.

At the recently held meeting with CARICOM leaders, Dr. Ali disclosed that extra-regional markets supplied an estimated 98.8 per cent of the poultry imported by CARICOM member states in 2020.

Those poultry imports ranged from the meat of ducks, geese, turkeys and guinea fowls that are fresh, chilled or frozen and was worth US$242.288 million.

Only 1.2 per cent of poultry demanded was imported from within the region. And in that same year, only six CARICOM countries – Barbados, Belize, Guyana, Jamaica, Suriname, and Trinidad and Tobago – produced 83 per cent of the poultry in the region.