Agriculture minister looking to long-term fixes for industry

As public officials work on a strategy to assist struggling farmers with a possible feed increase, Government signals it is not in favour of providing any further subsidies.

Minister of Agriculture Indar Weir made this revelation on Friday at the ministry’s headquarters, Graeme Hall, Christ Church following a ceremony to commemorate World Food Day, which is recognised internationally on October 16.

Weir told Barbados TODAY that a subsidy was a temporary quick fix and not a long-term solution.

“I am not so sold on the traditional route of dropping in price support. It lasts for a period of time and then you are back with the same problem. I want to create overall improvement and once the farmers are more efficient and the cost of operations is down then they may be able to withstand any external shocks,” he said.

Last year Government set aside $4 million in price support for poultry and livestock farmers when Pinnacle Feeds indicated that due to the skyrocketing costs of inputs, it was going to increase its prices by 19 and 26 per cent.

Back then, Government also negotiated with the manufacturer to drop the  margin to 11 per cent.

Weir said there were other ways Government could assist farmers.

“At the end of the day, many of these small farmers are struggling because of high costs of operations and it does not always have to be a subsidy. We can provide other support by improvement of their facilities, improvement in terms of genetics, technical support (and) introducing modern systems.”

Last week Pinnacle Feeds wrote the Barbados Agricultural Society informing the organisation of its plan to increase its prices by as much as 21 per cent because of the continued rising costs of grain.

However, after a meeting with the Ministry of Agriculture, the Barbados Chamber of Commerce and Ministry of Energy and Business Development, Pinnacle agreed it would hold on its prices for a week and provide the Ministry of Agriculture with financial details to allow officials to conduct an assessment and analysis of how the company was being impacted by increasing input costs and its inability to raise prices.

Meanwhile, Weir said it was impossible for Barbados to control supply chain issues occurring in the international sphere and it was time to look for feed inputs from non-traditional sources.

“My view on all of this is that we now have to look to new source markets. I don’t think that we can control what is happening globally.

“We can foster partnerships with people who are closer to us like Roraima (Brazil) to be able to get better prices of grain.

“That is what I am working on and I am duty-bound to protect the small farmers. So all of those small farmers who are involved in pig farming and poultry farming I’m also looking at options that we can explore to provide support for them,” he said.

On Monday, stakeholders in the farming community told Barbados TODAY that another price increase could run them out of business.

Meanwhile, Weir said Pinnacle has been keeping true to its word on its deliverables.

“We requested information so we can do an in-depth analysis of what is happening in terms of the landed cost of grains, cost of production (and so on) . . .It took a little time for us to get all the information we needed. I think up to yesterday (Thursday) morning we were still receiving information.

“Yesterday was Cabinet and we clearly couldn’t make a decision without the information. This (Friday) afternoon when we meet we will then finalise our analysis and then present something to Cabinet,” he said. sheriabrathwaite@barbadostoday.bb