Latest update November 26th, 2024 1:00 AM
Abundant chicken, eggs for Christmas
…prices will remain stable
From left Patrick DeGroot, Minister Prashad and Saeed Edun
Commerce Minister Manniram Prashad, along with president of the Guyana Poultry Producers’ Association and owners of the leading hatcheries, on Tuesday gave assurances that there will be an adequate supply of chicken and eggs for the Christmas season.
They also assured that the prices will remain stable.
Minister Prashad said that, at Christmas time, eggs and chicken are very important, and sometimes there is a shortage and the price fluctuates.
However, he added in the presence of president and vice-president of the Guyana Poultry Producers Association (GPPA), Patrick DeGroot and David Fernandes; owner of Fung-A-Fat hatcheries, Carl Fung-A-Fatt; Saeed Edun of Edun Hatcheries; and Andrew King also from the Poultry Producers’ Association, that he has been given the assurance that there will be no chicken or egg shortage for Christmas.
“There is an adequate supply of chicken for Christmas season. In fact, I’m told by Mr. DeGroot that for this period, November/December, as compared to 2007, they have 15 percent more production in the system as far as chicken is concerned.”
From all indications, Minister Prashad said, the price will remain stable and there is no need for the importation of any chicken.
He noted that the GPPA, through prudent management and the monitoring of the business, ensured that there was no need to import any chicken for the entire 2008.
“Guyana is self-sufficient in the production of chicken, and for the entire year there was no cause for importation. The prices will remain stable because there is a surplus on the market.”
In terms of eggs, he continued, the two leading hatcheries, Edun and Fung-A-Fatt, have also assured that there is an adequate supply of eggs on the market.
However, they are urging people to buy eggs early to avoid the spike in price by the vendors in December.
Minister Prashad also said that whilst the price will remain stable during the Christmas season and there will be an abundant supply of chicken, he is told that by the end of January, or at least in the first quarter of next year, because the price of grain on the world market is declining, the acquisition rate of the ingredients for feed will be significantly lower and there should be a drop in the price of chicken.
Patrick DeGroot yesterday told the media that, with the broiler production, all the hatching eggs used to produce the broiler chicken are imported from the US. They monitor the importation of the eggs.
He said that they are able to calculate weeks in advance what the production of chicken will be in the country.
According to him, an average hatchability and an average percent mortality is used to work out how much chicken there will be.
“We already know what chicken there is in the system and what we will be able to process from now to the end of the year.”
Saeed Edun, the largest egg producer in the country, said that from October this year the sale of eggs went down so there should be a surplus coming out of that backlog.
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