Chicken prices soar, gold industry blamed

Jun 07, 2012 News

Major players in the poultry industry are convinced that the country’s expanding gold mining industry is responsible for the current chicken shortage on the local market.
But there could be another reason. Many small producers, supplying chicken at the community level, were forced to pullout of the industry earlier this year owing to severe losses caused by stunted growth and early deaths among their poultry.
According to a small producer, “For every three bad crops you are only getting one good one. From the time you take home the chicks they die and those that survive are not growing.”

Poultry production on a large scale

“My chickens at eight weeks were looking like two-week-old and I think it had to do with either vaccination or the feed, or perhaps both. I recently purchased and they making a little progress. I am afraid to invest a lot of money and suffer a loss because the last time I only made $60,000 off of 200 chickens and that money did not include expense,” the producer stated.
Currently, consumers are paying as much as $440 per pound for poultry meat. The price is expected to increase on the market.
A large producer, who is currently selling live birds at $205 per pound, stated that the price of chicken is likely to increase by July. This increase is attributed to the increase in the prices for the two main ingredients in chicken feed.
He said that corn, which usually makes up 60 percent of the feed, could be substituted by broken rice if the price is affordable. However, there is no substitute for Soya bean, which experienced its highest price in seven years. This cost is expected to increase in July.
In relation, to the scarcity of chicken on the market, it was noted that Guyana’s production has increased but cannot yet satisfy the increasing local demand. He pointed out that his company’s production has increased by 17 percent for the year when compared to last year’s for the first five months.
A large market for local chicken is the gold mining industry. With the gold industry prospering and dredges affording 24 hours electricity many operators are purchasing chicken in large quantities.
With hatcheries importing substantial amounts of eggs, producers are hoping to keep-up with production to match the expanding mining industry and the rest of the country.

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