Consumers will have to pay more for eggs, chicken and turkey as local producers try to prevent the importation of animals with Avian Influenza (H5N1 Bird Flu).
However, added president of the Barbados Egg and Poultry Producers’ Association, Stephen Layne, the industry will do its best to lessen the blow.
“It is very important that we do not import any infected material into Barbados and so far our suppliers of hatching eggs in the southern part of the United States [US], Georgia, in particular, are free of avian influenza.
“But they will have more demand on them now from [their] local industry because other breeder farms have been impacted. Therefore, the demand in the US will push up the costs of production and put pressure on those who continue in production,” he told the DAILY NATION yesterday.
The increase, he said, would be marginal.
Mitigation
“Our contacts with the farms that sell us eggs for hatching are saying there will probably be a two to three per cent increase. I’m not sure how permanent it will be but it will be for some time. The hatcheries are going to have to put it on but we will see where the industry can mitigate against those increases.”
Layne said local farmers always did their best to ensure Barbadian consumers did not bear the brunt of the increases.
“Please note that the cost of both poultry meat and table eggs in the US had already gone up significantly, but we have been able to deal with that by not pushing those increases up in Barbados, especially for table eggs so far,” he explained.
Minister of Agriculture Indar Weir said while the increase was inevitable, Barbados had surveillance measures in place.
“You’re not going to import infected birds because the places that were affected were shut down . . . and we follow very strict measures.
“However, what you don’t want to do is to allow yourself to carry the risk. That’s why the farms in the US had to introduce a whole lot of bio-security measures, so that is going to come at an additional cost, which would impact the price overall,” Weir said.
“All around it’s a vicious cycle but there is nothing much that anyone can do because they’ve had the outbreak.”
Outbreaks
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) in the US, Avian H5 bird flu is widespread in wild birds worldwide and is causing outbreaks in poultry and US dairy cows, with several recent human cases in US dairy and poultry workers.
Although the current public health risk is low, the CDC said it was watching the situation carefully and working with states to monitor people with animal exposures.
The World Health Organisation (WHO) said that globally, from January 1, 2003, to December 12 last year, 954 cases of human infection with avian influenza A(H5N1) virus were reported from 24 countries.
“Of these 954 cases, 464 were fatal,” the WHO said in its Avian Influenza Weekly Update Number 980.
Earlier this month, Gale’s Agro Products Ltd, one of the larger poultry producers, put out a notice stating that from March 4, the price of broilers, layers, speciality chicks and turkeys will increase.
Managing director Barry Gale told Starcom Network about their experience.
“About a week to ten days ago, we were notified of an outbreak of avian influenza in one of the primary hatching egg-producing areas in the US, which is exactly where our biggest supplier produces a big portion of their production of hatching eggs.
“As a result, the extreme safety measures which are necessary to prevent the spread have locked down 33 per cent of their production, so we have been forced to find alternative egg suppliers, literally overnight,” he said.
“The alternative egg suppliers out of Europe are more expensive. Therefore, we are paying more for the hatching eggs and have to pass that cost on to our customers,” Gale added.
Chief executive officer of the Barbados Agricultural Society James Paul agreed that an increase was likely. He, however, said there was room for talks on the matter.
“How do we as an industry manage the situation for the future and how can we engage in certain strategic initiatives that will help us to mitigate against that as we go into the future? That is a discussion we can have,” he said. (TG)
