Imports should meet Xmas chicken demand
-says poultry association head
Stabroek News
November 28, 2003
Head of the Guyana Poul- try Producers Association (GPPA), Lloyd Fung-A-Fatt says there should be no shortage of chicken on the market right now as the GPPA members are producing 50% of the market demand and the other 50% should be met by Didco.
But at the same time, Fung-A-Fatt is concerned that Didco, the largest producer, has just secured a licence from the Ministry of Trade to import one million pounds of chicken legs.
"We are concerned. Why should he be importing chicken if he is the largest producer?" Fung-A-Fatt asked yesterday. The confirmation by Commerce Minister, Manzoor Nadir, that Didco had applied for a licence to import chicken leg quarters has raised a number of questions about the veracity of the government's claim that there is no scarcity of chicken on the market and that prices are not rising.
A number of persons have been on the record as saying that they cannot source chicken in large quantities. But Nadir insists, even as he signed two licences on Wednesday for imports, that there was no shortage.
Didco has quoted a landed price of US 34 cents per pound on the licence, which will translate after the 100% tax and 10% duty to US 74 cents per pound or $146.52 per pound. Didco is currently wholesaling chicken at $125 per pound and it raises the question of how far the prices are then expected to rise.
Stabroek News was told by a number of persons that the shipment of chicken leg quarters for Didco has already been ordered and will be here this weekend. But when senior Didco official, Tarchand Ramgoolam was contacted by Stabroek News on Wednesday, he denied that any order was placed or that an import licence had been applied for.
Meanwhile Fung-A-Fatt released figures to Stabroek News to show that between July 1 and November 25, an average of 581,474 pounds of chicken was processed per week by the producers under the GPPA. The demand per week is around one million pounds.
Deo Singh, Chief Executive Officer of Didco, at a press conference when the reports of shortages first surfaced, had said Didco had the capacity to produce 1.5M pounds of chicken per month and did not envisage any shortfall for Christmas. He also said Didco would seek to have the prices for chicken stabilised at $115-125 per pound.
Nadir on Wednesday said that the problems some buyers were experiencing may be related to some of the pens for one poultry investor not coming on stream as was expected. He did not say if Didco was that investor.