PIG FARMERS ASSURE THEY ARE STILL STICKING WITH THE SOCIAL COMPACT
By Sheria Brathwaite
Scores of pig farmers who signed onto Government’s extended price compact were forced to increase the price of their product due to the eight per cent hike in the price of feed.
However, president of the Barbados Pig Farmers Co-operative Society Ltd. Algernon Johnson is assuring consumers that the 200-member farming body was not pulling out of the national agreement and that the price adjustment was small.
In an interview with Barbados TODAY Johnson said that while it was not possible for farmers to absorb additional production costs they would not abandon the consumers who rallied with them through the heightened periods of the COVID-19 pandemic, when the economy was at a standstill.
“We are trying to work through the challenges and work with the customers because if you try to go too high you will lose your customers and that would put the farmers in bigger trouble. It is very difficult, but you can’t forget your customers because when things weren’t going good they supported you, now things are difficult you still have to make sure the customers are able to buy,” he said.
On February 9, Government and members of the business community agreed to an extension to the price compact for six months. The initial compact ran from July 21, 2022 to January 31, 2023.
Pork producers agreed to hold to a mark-up of ten per cent.
However, a week later, the island’s lone livestock and poultry feed manufacturer Pinnacle Feeds announced that effective March 15, the price of feed would increase by eight per cent.
The increase meant pig farmers had to pay as much as $8.33 more for feed.
Following that announcement the co-op society held meetings to revise their participation in the agreement and discuss how the feed increase would impact their operations.
However, Johnson said that the co-op developed a strategy to protect the interests of the farmers without compromising the agreement they made with Government.
He said the strategy included motivating members, emphasising the importance of teamwork and looking at ways they could purchase inputs in bulk for some cost savings.
“We have members who were simultaneously breeding pigs and fattening [porkers] but in these times we know it is hard to do all two unless you have a good financial backing. We told some to just breed and the others to fatten so they won’t have to try to finance two things at one time. In this way they would be in a better position to manage their operations.
“It has started to work. We have to keep the industry going and keep the local market satisfied so we won’t have to import.”
Johnson said that the pig farmers also had to “slightly” increase their prices although he couldn’t say the precise level of the increase.
“We have a leading economist on our board and he gives us good advice. We couldn’t raise prices too high and lose out as we would be putting consumers under more pressure and they would stop buying. So we increased but not to the magnitude where we would have to come out of the compact. This allows us to remain viable as an organisation and keep our customers as they could only spend according to their pockets.
“Plus if we carry up prices drastically now, what will happen if the FTC (Fair Trading Commission) allows light and power (Barbados Light & Power Company) to increase the electric bill. That will be an additional cost to us as we will have to pay more to store meat, process it and so on. So you have to do things in small increments that won’t be unfair to consumers.”
Johnson said that so far, the plan has been working noting that the co-op did “really well” over the Easter season. He said another aspect of the plan was to also increase production as the anticipated Crop Over season would attract thousands of visitors and his organisation had to be ready for the demand.
The co-op president said that there
will be more large-scaled events and food vendors and caterers will need their meat orders met.
However, he added, getting the numbers up could be a challenge as there were several farmers who halted their operations after experiencing financial difficulties at the height of the COVID-19 pandemic and were now getting back into production.
sheriabrathwaite@barbadostoday.bb
