Chicken ‘solidly back on the menu’

Sep 03, 2010 News

– market stabilizes after shortage

By Crystal Conway

Chicken-loving Guyanese have felt the squeeze in their wallets over the last few weeks as a shortage forced prices up by almost $60 on the pound.
For a country that, according to Managing Director of Bounty Farm Ltd, Patrick De Groot, consumes an average of one million pounds of chicken per week, the increase has hit many Guyanese hard.
Minister of Agriculture, Robert Persaud commented on the reason for the shortage earlier this week.
He said that the pressure on the supply of chicken was the result of a reduced supply of hatching eggs from US suppliers this year. He went on to point out that the low supply had its origins in the downsizing of US hatcheries due to the economic recession in the US.
The chickens that are sold as meat to consumers are all imported as eggs from US hatcheries since there are no local hatcheries large enough to meet the demand of Guyana’s market for chickens.
They are imported as eggs, incubated and hatched here and in 11 to 12 weeks these chicks become the meat birds that feed the country.
De Groot had more to add on the matter of hatching eggs; he noted that aside from the already low supplies of hatching eggs reaching these shores there were also issues with hatchability.
He said that for every batch of eggs his company averages that about 75 per cent will hatch and mature into birds that can be sold for their meat.
He noted however that the hatchability of the last set of eggs on the market was in the vicinity of 30 to 40 per cent therefore affecting the amount of chickens that would have been available at the end of the growth stage.
Both De Groot and Minister Persaud noted that there were indications of a possible shortage before the actual fact since they monitor the market through the supply of hatching eggs.
According to Persaud, stakeholders in the industry were advised of the possibility that there could be a real shortage. Meanwhile consumers would have started noticing the trouble with chicken in early June.
Recent weeks have seen the publication of an advisory by the Guyana Poultry Producers Association which noted that the supply and price of chicken would be stabilized by mid-August.
In that advisory it was noted that the outlying areas of the capital have already been experiencing some relief while efforts were being made to bring the same to the residents of Georgetown.
According to Persaud, bringing chicken into Georgetown from the areas where the shortage was not as acute such as Berbice, as well as increased monitoring of the supply of hatching eggs, and production of the birds were all part of the Ministry’s strategy to head off the supply troubles.
Meanwhile Bounty Farm has their own methods of dealing with a shortage of chicken. De Groot revealed that his company has the capacity to store at least two million pounds of chicken.
He pointed out that the market is one that cycles through gluts and shortages and after each shortage there is an excess on the market.
These increased numbers interfere with a farmer’s ability to put down young chicks for another growth cycle.
According to De Groot, not placing enough birds will tend to cause a limited supply when the growth period ends and the consumers require their chicken.
Several weeks later, consumers begin to feel the squeeze as the shortage erupts. De Groot pointed out that it is during the glut that they begin to store chickens, which allows their company to keep processing birds and so make way for new chicks.
When asked if there was a possibility that there would be supply problems over the Christmas holidays which are less than three months away, both Persaud and De Groot answered in the negative.
They are both convinced that not only is the market re-stabilizing itself, but it will be more than able to meet the increased demand that comes with the holidays.
De Groot did point out that one of the vulnerabilities in our poultry market was the fact that we do not produce hatching eggs on a large scale. He mentioned that there were a few farms that were experimenting with raising broiler breeders – the large birds that produce hatching eggs but the enterprise was still experimental. According to De Groot, the local temperatures affect the breeding ability of the birds; while a little research points out that tropical temperatures also have some effect on the rate of embryonic development in hatching eggs among other reproductive issues.
He noted that although most Guyanese did not realize it, the Avian Flu scares in North America that occurred not so long ago were of greater importance to us than we believed.
According to De Groot, if the outbreak had become rampant, and the supply of hatching eggs from the US were halted, the poultry supply in Guyana might have suffered seriously if the country’s farmers were unable to find another supply source at a reasonable price.
Nevertheless, from the industry and the Government position, the outlook for the country’s poultry market – especially chicken – is good.
The prices are slowly beginning to drop back to their previous numbers and by all indications a shortage of chicken will not be one of the things that Guyanese will have to worry about over the next few months.