Consumers promised poultry prices will be no higher than pre-compact levels

By Sheria Brathwaite

Poultry farmers have remained resolute about their position to stay clear of a new price compact with Government, blaming the initial agreement for a decline in the industry and “injury” to farmers, some of whom opted out of the business.

However, they have promised not to increase their prices but rather, revert to the pre-compact markups.

This came as Government continued to meet with various arms of the Social Partnership to discuss a new national price agreement.

Since last month the heads of both the Barbados Private Sector Association and the Barbados Chamber of Commerce and Industry (BCCI) said they were willing to participate in talks to extend the compact. On Monday, the head of the BCCI Anthony Branker said proposals for a new arrangement were put to Government. Those proposals, he said, ensured that consumers had more spending power while at the same time, ensured that businesses were not compromised.  

However, in an interview with Barbados TODAY, president of the Barbados Egg and Poultry Producers’ Association Stephen Layne said that while he did not attend a meeting with Government and the Barbados Agricultural Society (BAS) on Wednesday afternoon at Ilaro Court, he gave instructions that the poultry sector’s stance was to be maintained. 

“I was not invited as president because they already know from the media what my sentiments were. So they were trying to circumvent that I believe. But Mr [James] Paul (chief executive officer of the BAS) had instructions from me that we are not interested in re-entering that. It has cost a lot of injury to the poultry farmers and in totality, significant decline to the industry with hatcheries having to cull birds,” he said.

When contacted about the meeting, Paul would only say that it was “long” but that he could give no more details. 

“I can’t tell you,” he said, while confirming that the poultry farmers would not be involved in a new compact “as was decided weeks ago”.

On Saturday January 7, members of the poultry industry, including small farmers, met at Lloyd Erskine Sandiford Centre to thrash out issues affecting that sector, including the compact.

The farmers complained that they did not have a say in the negotiations of the initial agreement and were compromised by the arrangement as retailers, restaurants, supermarkets and other businesses were demanding that they offer their products at the same prices as the larger players.

The compact was signed off to run from August 19 to January 31 with an acknowledgement that the farmers would take a 10 per cent cut.

The farmers have since voted that BEPPA should not get into another such arrangement as many of them could not sustain selling their products for 10 per cent less. Many scaled down their operations significantly or stopped producing completely, which had a major impact on the island’s main hatchery- Gale’s Agro Products Ltd. Scores of small farmers cancelled orders and the hatchery lost thousands of dollars in sales. They also had to euthanise thousands of birds as a result.

However, Layne said that since that meeting took place reports indicated that confidence was being revived among players in the industry with those who stopped producing and those who scaled down, putting in orders again. 

“There was a marked increase in the industry . . . I spoke to the management of the hatchery and he said the orders have gone back up.

“We have an important role to play and I think only one of the large producers may want to entertain Government with the compact but that is their business. They may be getting concessions everybody else is not getting.”

The BEPPA head said chicken prices should go back to pre-compact levels.

“The chicken prices would be what the farmers were expecting to get before and that should not reflect any increase in prices to the consumers. They have not looked at increasing the prices at this time, even to cover all the losses that were made. We are responsible players and we empathise with consumers.

“But most of the discounts we were offering never got to the consumer anyway, when you look at the prices in the retail sector. The fast food prices didn’t drop so we would be going back where we were, which is basically supplying at a survival rate. People were dropping out of the business because they couldn’t survive.”

The BEPPA will meet on Thursday to discuss what occurred during Wednesday’s meeting and how the industry as a collective should proceed in the future. sheriabrathwaithe@barbadostoday.bb