BEPPA happy with no compact, suggests Government has accepted the move

It appears that Government has accepted the position of poultry producers to not enter into a new social compact, says president of the Barbados Egg and Poultry Producers’ Association (BEPPA) Stephen Layne.

Following an internal meeting on Thursday, Layne said that he informed the farmers that as was promised last month, the Barbados Agricultural Society (BAS) had held firm against signing onto a new price agreement and did not falter at the negotiating table.

“Based on the meeting yesterday (Wednesday) the government seems to be backing away,” he said.

Government continues to meet with various arms of the Social Partnership to discuss the new national price agreement.

Layne said Thursday’s meeting was convened to talk about what happened on Wednesday afternoon at Ilaro Court when government officials met with the BAS about the new compact.

He said it was important to report back to the farmers on the issue.

On Saturday January 7, during a BEPPA meeting, small farmers claimed that the association’s board of management was coerced into signing off on the initial arrangement last year, which ran from from August 19 to January 31.

Back then they voted against getting into another price agreement with Government.

Layne said he was pleased with how everything went as it was not only a win for the farming body, but the industry as a whole.

“I am feeling very optimistic that we can maintain prices that would not injure the consumers. We have a vested interest in looking after the consumers as we have always had, which is very important, because a lot of consumers are also poultry farmers. So we have a vested interest in looking after the smaller people in the community that may feel disadvantaged or disenfranchised and we are not increasing our prices. “But, at the same time, we have to be in a position where we have to protect the poultry sector because there might be 3 000 or 4 000 people that may go out of a job and a hatchery that may lose a couple hundred people.

“We cannot afford to lose all of those jobs, especially with people who would have spent their last money they got from retrenchment from previous positions or invested out of retirement. We need to keep their faith, and help provide a secure source of poultry.”

When contacted managing director of Gale’s Agro Products Ltd. Barry Gale, who is a key stakeholder in the poultry industry said that since January’s meeting, small farmers were regaining momentum and farmers who had previously gone out of business or significantly reduced their operations started to order chicks again.

“With the industry deciding at its annual general meeting early in January that it could not continue with the compact . . . Small farmers have responded very well with the hope that the compact will end and orders from the small farmers have picked back up significantly. It appears to me that the small farmers are regaining some confidence and they are willing to commit to buying the chicks that would end up being full grown chickens that are going to be put into the market,” he said.

Earlier this year, Gale reported that the compact’s effect on small farmers was trickling down to his business.

He was losing thousands of dollars worth in sales and had to euthanise thousands of chicken embryos due to the scale of cancellations.

sheriabrathwaite@barbadostoday.bb