Key players in poultry sector urge fast food restaurants to review ordering practices

The Minister of Agriculture, the Barbados Agricultural Society (BAS) and local poultry producers have all rubbished recent claims by at least two local fast food outlets that a shortage of fresh chicken is slowing down their operations.

Instead of pointing fingers at the industry, stakeholders are urging consumers of large amounts of poultry to tighten their business practices and improve communication with their suppliers.

The swift rebuttals have come as Chicken Barn took a decision to close its Black Rock, Coverley and Bay Street locations on Monday due to a “lack of chickens available on island”.

It comes less than 24 hours after its management, along with that of Kentucky Fried Chicken (KFC), were quoted reporting shortages spanning ten days.

When pressed for a response to the claims, Minister of Agriculture Indar Weir told Barbados TODAY that based on his preliminary investigations, there was no genuine shortage of chicken or chicks in the country. Instead, he indicated that restaurants that order chicken on a “just in time” arrangement could run into problems if their primary provider experiences challenges with supply.

“If that happens and [fast food restaurants] realise that the demand is greater, then they have to find it elsewhere and if all of the other producers are meeting their orders, then at some point in time obviously especially if your supplier has not been getting orders placed to grow new chicks, this is bound to happen,” Weir told Barbados TODAY.

“The person who claims that there is a shortage is not a poultry producer. That person is a buyer who runs a fast food restaurant. That person would have to explain who they were sourcing their chicken from and what has changed, but based on the industry itself, there is no shortage of fresh chicken,” he further explained.

Issues affecting the poultry sector became more severe during the COVID-19 shutdowns earlier this year that resulted in an over 50 per cent decline in demand when fast food restaurants were forced to close. Since then, the estimated monthly demand for fresh chicken has remained down, forcing poultry producers to raise less stock to avoid having to dump chickens or place them in cold storage.

“The poultry producers obviously would come under pressure to meet the increase in orders that is now coming from the fast food restaurants, and it is interesting to note that this is not the case for every fast food restaurant,” Weir pointed out.

“So to say that there is a shortage of fresh chicken in Barbados is an unfortunate thing to say because the supermarkets have not run out of fresh chicken. None of them is saying they are under pressure. So this is an isolated case which has to be thoroughly examined,” the Minister further argued.

During a meeting with poultry producers set for Wednesday, Weir promised to get to the bottom of the claims.

Meanwhile, President of the Barbados Agricultural Society James Paul lent his voice to the discussion on radio call-in programme Down-to-Brass-Tacks where he blasted fast food restaurants that pursue a “same day delivery model”. Paul argued that this is especially risky for restaurants that require unique specifications in relation to their cuts of meat.

Despite the disruption, he predicted that the affected restaurants would be supplied within the coming days.

A major producer of poultry, Barry Gale of Gale Hatcheries, who called into the programme also argued that in some cases, he has been forced to stop selling baby chicks to small farmers who do not pay, while in other instances, last minute cancellations have forced him to dispose of stock.

“I cannot afford to throw away 50,000 baby chickens every week, because after a few weeks, I would be out of business. So we have to make business decisions based fundamentally on what we expect the demand to be, but also on what our customers paying habits are and unfortunately during times like these that are uncertain, you tend not to supply to customers if you are unsure if they will pay,” the producer added.
(kareemsmith@barbadostoday.bb)