Guyana’s current chicken shortage will be rectified by mid-August as local farmers have placed adequate supplies of chicken on their farms that will reach production age by that time, the Guyana Poultry Producers Association (GPPA) said yesterday in a press release.
The release issued by President of the GPPA, Peter De Groot, explained that hatching egg imports have increased and local farmers have enough broiler birds in production to address the shortage within a week or two.
“Local farmers have placed adequate supplies of chickens on their farms that will reach processing age in another week or two, which is expected to bring an end to the shortage of local chicken. Since the cause of this disruption has been rectified, this problem is unlikely to reoccur,” the GPPA said.
The Guyana Livestock Development Authority (GLDA) last week confirmed there was a shortage of chicken meat for consumption on the local market.
Although the GLDA attributed the shortage to the reduction of hatching eggs imported as of June this year, the GPPA yesterday proffered a different explanation.
The genesis of the shortage of chicken, they said, lies in the fact that chicken was being smuggled on a large scale from Suriname. This resulted in local farmers being left with overgrown chicken on their farms.
GPPA in their statement published in today’s newspaper, said that between May 2018 and March 2019, large quantities of chicken produced in America and Brazil were imported into Suriname and “some of that chicken was smuggled into Guyana.”
“This contributed to the surplus of chicken in Guyana because the local poultry farmers could not estimate the amount of smuggled chicken entering the country,” the statement added.
The glut, GPPA pointed out, was the largest Guyana has ever experienced. Against this background, farmers found themselves with an excess of chicken on their farms during the month of March.
“…farmers were found to have excess chicken in their pens that were about 12 and 15 weeks old when the normal grow[th] period was 6 weeks. The delayed time for excess chicken to be sold resulted in long delays before farmers could start a new crop of chicks, since new crops required the pens to be empty,” GPPA explained.
However, the poultry association said they have observed a dent in the quantity of chicken being smuggled as a result of actions by the Guyana Revenue Authority Enforcement Department in addition to a new duty being placed on the importation of chicken by Suriname authorities.
In June, the GPPA pointed out that Suriname raised the duty on imported chicken from five per cent to forty per cent. This move, along with the anti-smuggling campaign of the GRA enforcement officers also contributed significantly and positively to the reduction of chicken being brought into the country illegally.
The GPPA in its statement, while expressing gratitude to the enforcement department of the GRA, assured the Guyanese public that the shortage of chicken supplies will return to a state of normalcy by mid-August.
Some fast food chains have said that their operations are being affected by the current chicken shortage in the country.
The fast food outlets yesterday disclosed that they were unable to satisfy customers’ request for specific pieces of chicken. Some have also stated that they have noticed the chicken pieces to be smaller than usual.
Households that purchase live chickens from small vendors have also complained of a shortage of chicken. Some have indicated that while the price per a pound of chicken has increased, the sizes available are smaller, this newspaper reported yesterday.
