Black Belly Sheep project progressing well, says Agriculture Minister

The initiative under which Barbados has agreed to export 1 000 Black Belly Sheep to Guyana for rearing and re-export back here is making good progress.

Minister of Agriculture and Food Security Indar Weir said Barbados is now preparing to ship 300 more of the animals, having already sent 400.

“The last report I got…everything is going well. We did not lose any of the sheep that were shipped and that’s a good sign. I am now trying to get the remaining amount sent down to Guyana. We are preparing a shipment of 300 and then following that there will be another 300 and we will be finished,” he told Barbados TODAY.

“The project really is designed for us to be able to do what we can here in Barbados – that’s to have a million head of Black Belly Sheep and then do a slaughtering programme where we use the hide for leather craft and the meat for speciality cuts for the tourism industry and for local consumption.”

Weir explained that Barbados, unlike Guyana, does not have the land space to rare the million sheep.

“We would need a lot of land for grazing and so on. Guyana has that,” he added.

In August last year, Guyana received the first flock of 132 sheep from Barbados – 112 ewes and 20 rams – under the initiative between the governments of Guyana and Barbados to develop a regional brand of sheep to reduce the importation of lamb and mutton products into the region.

(EJ)