Chicken available but price rising already
By Nicosia Smith
Stabroek News
November 17, 2006
Affording chicken for Christmas lunch or dinner this season will come at an extra cost as prices have begun rising in the face of supply concerns but wholesalers assure that chicken and egg supplies will remain steady for the period.
A check earlier this week at municipal markets, Bourda and Stabroek revealed that chicken was being sold for as high as $280 per pound, after beginning the year at $180 per pound in January.
At Stabroek market chicken was retailing at $250 to $260 per pound and at Bourda market and surrounding meat centres from $240 to $280 per pound. Imported chicken was being retailed at $220 per pound. On the other hand, a tray of small eggs were retailed for $420, even as some places sold medium-sized eggs for $400 per tray and the large eggs were retailed for $450 per tray at some locations. One retailer did not price his eggs by size and retailed a tray of eggs for $500. During this period last year chicken prices ranged from $220 to $240 per pound and eggs around the same.
There were complaints by vendors that chicken was in short supply hence the increased prices. To ascertain what may be driving up the chicken prices Stabroek News spoke with poultry farm owners and egg producers.
A representative from Green Ice-Poultry Farm at 64-69 Triumph Village, East Coast told this newspaper that for the past three months poor feed has affected his supply and he sustained losses to the tune of $100,000, and along the way lost 100 layers.
One reason behind the poor feed quality said this representative could have been mould in the feed. According to his explanation the high protein soybean tends to attract mould. At Green Ice-Poultry, as a result of poor feed quality the broilers had less weight and did not realize its budgeted yield. The representative noted that feed recently bought by the farm seems to be ok, however it was noted that many farmers are still not taking chances and continue to add more protein to the feed. As a result, Green Ice wholesales live chicken at $140-$160 per pound, an increase of about $20 to $40 from two months ago. While this farm does not sell plucked chicken this is estimated to be wholesaling at $220 to $240 per pound. Green Ice-Poultry now has its full stock of birds and believes that there might not be a shortage of chicken once the normal seasonal demand remains steady. Green Ice did not indicate their current level of supply.
A spokesperson from Edun's Poultry & Hatchery at 24-25 Busby Road, Craig, East Bank Demerara, which produces its own chicken feed by importing soybean and corn from Miami, noted that on October 30 a shipment of these inputs was received and another is expected by December, ensuring that they would not be short of feed. This farm produces strictly layers for egg production and has 200,000 layers to feed daily, said the representative, adding that they "can't really depend on another source (of supply)."
These egg producers blame the middlemen for spiking egg prices during the season irrespective of the wholesale price. For example, it was noted that last year Christmas while the outlet sold eggs at $450 per tray the middlemen were retailing a tray of eggs as high as $1,000 during the season. "The farmers do not rise to exorbitant (prices) it is the middle persons," summed up Edun farms.
Currently, a tray of large-sized eggs at Edun is $400 and this is a $10 increase from two months ago. This farm pledges that their customers will have a full supply of eggs since their production will cover the demand expected.
The second largest chicken producer, Bounty Farm Ltd, some weeks ago told Stabroek News that they too will be able to meet their demand for the season, and will be producing at full capacity until March to meet the demand for the Cricket World Cup 2007.
Robert Badal of Guyana Stockfeed Ltd has told Stabroek News that the feed his company supplies is not tainted and a test conducted on his feed has shown this. The country has been gripped by the stunted growth of chicks and this has exacerbated supply concerns. This week Stockfeed increased their feed prices by $100 per bag, thus a bag of starter feed is now $3,160, up from $3,060, the grower is now $3,060, up from $2,960 and the layer is retailing at $2,680. The Guyana National Bureau of Standards has embarked on a campaign to stop poor quality feed from reaching the market and has held meetings with several feed producers and retailers.
Last November and two months before that chicken feed was in short supply leading to thousands of broiler deaths and large scale starvation, due to low supplies of soybean and corn from Trinidad and Tobago and the United States and high local rice prices.