By YOURI KEMP

Tribune Business Reporter

ykemp@tribunemedia.net

An Abaco poultry farm yesterday said it is “selling out” of chickens as demand has the farm “running out of supplies every month”.

Lance Pinder, Abaco Big Bird Poultry’s operations manager, told Tribune Business that he was now “trying to expand as we see things happening” in the market. Abaco Big Bird’s progress comes as Clay Sweeting, minister of agriculture, marine resources and Family Island affairs, renewed calls to increase poultry production in a bid decrease The Bahamas’ annual $1bn food import bill.

Mr Pinder, though, said he has “heard it all before” with governments trying to increase poultry production. However, he believes this time will be different because the current minister “sounds very interested”.

“The Government just needs the political will to do what needs to be done if they want to see the poultry industry grow,” he added, calling for a consistent commercial environment where the rules do not change at every general election. “The Government needs to create an environment where the industry knows what field its playing on, and then let the private industry go from there,” Mr Pinder said.

“Whatever they decide to do they need to make it a long-term policy, and it can’t be every two years that the duty rate goes down and they do this, that and the other because private businesses can’t operate in an environment like that.”

Agricultural processing investments require significant capital, and investors want to know what to expect and that they are competing in a climate that is fair. “Obviously, things like hurricanes can happen, but private business needs to know how things function,” Mr Pinder added.

“That’s my biggest thing. It needs to be a set policy where we know where we’re going and we know what we’re dealing with. Consistency always has been one of my biggest complaint,s and not when the minister changes or when the Government changes.

“It’s not like growing a cash crop like tomatoes, where every three months you are redoing your thing,” Mr Pinder added of the poultry business. “You’re talking about building structures and processes and plants, and a lot of capital intensive infrastructure for a poultry operation.”

The poultry industry is currently facing inflationary pressure in common with all industries. Mr Pinder said everything he imports to run his farm has increased in price, on average, by 10 percent. “If you look at the US poultry figures, chicken has gone up almost 70 percent in the last year,” he added. “USDA (US Department of Agriculture) market data was $1.05 a pound, and they’re pushing $1.70 a pound right now, so that’s about a 70 percent increase.”