Consumers say they are happy to see that more supermarket freezers are being restocked with chicken.
Several shoppers shared that sentiment yesterday as some did routine weekend shopping and others started early stocking up for the holidays.
“I’m really excited to see the chicken on the shelves because not only does my family eat a lot of chicken, but I have two sweet little dogs. They are very spoiled and they love their chicken and rice with pumpkin,” Zoe Manning said.
After substituting other meats for chicken, Trudy Bellamy said she was pleased to have more options.
“Fish, barbecued pig tails and pork were on the menu quite a bit during the shortage but I’m very happy to see the shelves are stocked again,” Bellamy said.
Although Michael Forde said he was keeping an eye on the chicken and poultry products, he welcomed the return.
“A lot of the fishermen are still fixing their boats so we had some issues there so I think that it’s time we got some chicken back. I see the prices are a little high but we have to live with it,” Forde said.
They were among several people seen shopping at Cost U Less, St Thomas, while at Massy Stores Coverley, Christ Church, there were also some customers checking out that store’s poultry section.
One woman who gave her name only as Joan said: “It was frustrating those months when we could hardly get any chicken . . . while some people were telling us there was no shortage. I’m glad that it is over but I hope we don’t have to experience that again,” she said.
Cost U Less manager Jackie McDonagh said although the supply of chicken breasts could improve, she said the overall stock was better than before.
“We still have some shortfall in chicken breast, but we hope to see more of that in the future. But, overall, we’ve seen an influx in the last week in terms of a better supply to the store. It’s been critical to our business and the consumer,” she said.
McDonagh said while the importation of certain products was often an
option, she suggested that should not be done lightly, considering how much it would eventually impact the consumer.
“We are heavily reliant on local suppliers and if we were to open the door for importation, we would have to review the overall duties so it’s not passed on to the consumer. There are importation duties and that is a cost to the persons bringing it in and it’s going to go to the customer and customers can’t afford to pay that amount for chicken,” she said.
On Friday, Minister of Agriculture Indar Weir said the replenishment occurred during mid to late November.
“I committed when I said by November 18 we should start to see increased supplies of poultry, fresh whole chickens on the shelves of supermarkets and that has happened,” Weir said.
“We are now seeing bigger birds on the shelves. We are seeing far more supplies than we did see in October, to the extent that some supermarkets had to slow down their orders or, indeed, cancel their orders because the shelves are packed to capacity. This will continue going into the Christmas season.
He said there was also an app they were using to try to prevent a recurrence of the chicken shortage.
“We have an app that is going to be used for agriculture that would tell us what is happening on a daily basis in the poultry industry so that we get ahead of any challenges that may be presented. We can also monitor the daily hatches and that type of data we should have beforehand and that should help us to mitigate a repeat of the shortages that we just saw,” he said. (TG)
