Growers move to head off reliance on imported birds

By Sheria Brathwaite 

An investigation into ongoing issues with the supply of chicken and eggs has begun to rule out likely suspects, the poultry farming community’s spokesman said Tuesday.

The search for answers has taken on renewed urgency as the growers seek to head off demands for imports that would threaten a potential bonanza for producers and processors when the T20 Cricket World Cup finals come to Barbados in June.

“We do not want there to be any need for imports, that is not the solution and we must be mindful that imports will be costly as other countries have been having problems with their poultry sector,” said President of the Barbados Egg and Poultry Association (BEPPA) Stephen Layne.

“Luckily, we do not have any diseases, like the avian flu, that California and other states along the West Coast of America are exposed to and certain parts of Europe.”

In recent weeks, consumers have been complaining about low quantities of chicken and smaller birds in stores but industry officials have maintained there is no shortage. Last Friday, BEPPA announced it would be conducting its probe into the complaints.

But already the country’s hatcheries have been ruled out as the culprit behind the supply problem, according to preliminary findings by Layne.

Emerging from a meeting with industry figures, he told Barbados TODAY he was able to verify that the hatcheries were not under-supplying customers. Figures for the first six weeks of the year showed about a ten per cent increase in orders over last year’s when compared year-on-year, he said.

Having ruled out the hatcheries, he said the next move was to look into the growers’ farming practices to eliminate them from the list of suspects and move on to another possible cause of the supply problem. 

“We need to investigate further because the number of chicks that were hatched [is] significant; there are more than we hatched last year and even [the] year before,” said Layne. 

“Feed comes up all the time and I cannot categorically speak to that but farmers like to suggest everything else except their management practices. So what we need to do is to investigate if the practices the farmers have in place to grow birds, from brooding to the next stage of growing, are right and if there is a high mortality rate in the industry.”

Layne said BEPPA would also start a programme to train farmers about best practices in farming during the hotter months, noting that some of them may need some financial assistance getting equipment to outfit their pens. 

“We want to help them reduce mortality rates and have better yields going into the market because we have an increased amount of tourists on the island and we have the World Cup coming up. So we will be having some seminars in March after Agrofest to assist members on how to mitigate against those challenges,” he said.

Eyeing a boost in commercial activity from the International Cricket Council T20 World Cup from June 1-29, the BEPPA said he was optimistic that the issues would soon subside, stressing that he wanted farmers to benefit fully from the business boom.

Chief Executive Officer of the Barbados Agricultural Society James Paul on Monday urged the private sector to tell the farming community how much food they will need in light of the World Cup, adding that it would give farmers an idea of how much they needed to increase their production and not leave them to guess.

sheriabrathwaite@barbadostoday.bb