Pig farmers want an ease in GSC

A picture of doom and gloom has been painted by a local pig farmer with four decades of experience in the industry who has joined others in calling on Government to remove the burdensome Garbage and Sewage Contribution (GSC) levy, which they say is taking a massive bite out of their business.

Gay Reed, operator of Barnwell Farms also slammed any importation of pork products at this time, stating that the local market was already depressed and burdened with high input costs.

“Right now we cannot get our product sold. So importation is very bad for us,” said Reed.

He told Barbados TODAY his input costs were very high, owing mainly to the cost of feed and the GSC levy, which was introduced in 2018 at a rate of $1.50 per day for households and 50 per cent of existing water bills for customers.

“I would like authorities to cut off the Sewage and Garbage tax off the water and I would like to see the importation of pork banned or a duty of 186 per cent on imported pork . . . they had that number in the past,” said the prominent pig farmer.

He said it was “doom and gloom” for the industry if steps were not urgently taken to reduce input costs.

Another long-time pig farmer, Dennis Everseley, told Barbados TODAY the importation of products was significantly impacting farmers and many of them would simply be exiting the industry if the situation did not improve.

“If you have a product and you bringing in that same product at a lesser price then you don’t want the local product. We have to import corn and everything for the feed that is expensive, so the product has to be expensive,” he explained.

Everseley, who employs four workers, said farmers had to pay their workers “a living wage”, which also adds to the input costs.

He too, called on Government to remove the GSC levy, saying he did not even benefit from sewage and garbage services at his Kirtons, St Philip location.

He said his water bill comes to around $10,000 with the levy. Additionally, Everseley explained that he spends between $40,000 and $50,000 per month in feed.

“I don’t make any money. I am just paying bills,” he declared.

Pointing out that farmers were forced to lower prices from time to time, he said this was done in order to get the products sold and the farmers often take a major loss.

Everseley said he was about to exit the industry because he simply could not afford it any longer.

His farm usually supplies the market with about 50 pigs per week. He said he also supplied pork products to one major retailer for about a year-and-a-half before they stopped taking his product about a year ago.

“They can buy local. I used to sell them five pigs a week but they stopped buying and they import,” he said of the retailer.

“Stop the importation. Stop them from dumping pork on us,” pleaded the farmer of 39 years.

Chief Executive Officer of the Barbados Agricultural Society (BAS) James Paul told Barbados TODAY his association was constantly making representation to government on behalf of members.

“One of the first recommendations we have said is that we would like the removal of the Garbage and Sewage contribution from those water bills, especially for farming enterprises . . . I think that once you have shown that you are a bonafide farmer I think the Garbage and Sewage [Contribution] levy should be removed,” said Paul.

At the same time, he said the BAS has been encouraging farmers to do what they could to cut back on costs including setting up systems for water harvesting and incorporating renewable energy systems in their operations.

“I am appealing to government that those enterprises that have a farming component attached to it, those should be the ones that are given first priority in terms of any approval for renewable energy projects. Not just others who have some land there and not doing farming with it, but they want to put up some solar cells to make profits but not helping to contribute to the agricultural efforts,” he added.

Meanwhile, President of the Barbados Egg and Poultry Association Stephen Layne told Barbados TODAY it was about time that residents and government take the issue of food security more seriously.

“Every nation has a responsibility to look after itself and if the business sector is only interested in making a profit then that nation is going to have serious challenges going ahead,” said Layne.

He too called for a removal of the GSC levy, saying it was adding to an already costly situation that was threatening to drive farmers out of business.

“We have had significant increases of the cost going into poultry production – the sewage tax, cost of feed and grain have gone up significantly – and the feed company has been trying to hold things together, the poultry farmers have not had a price increase on poultry and eggs for over ten years and it is not that they can’t afford to do it, they were trying to act as responsible citizens. It has forced some of them that were marginal out of business already,” he said.

Over 50 per cent of the poultry sector here are small farmers with just a few hundred birds, he said.

“We have lost a lot of jobs already and if we lose more jobs in this sector it certainly can’t do well for the tax collection, people buying things and all the related things that come when people are unemployed and desperate,” said Layne.
(marlonmadden@barbadostoday.bb)