Dear Editor,
It has been one month, 2 weeks and a few hours since I have booked, paid and received a date to collect chickens, from our country’s premier poultry producer. I run a small business centred on farming: poultry and cash cropping. Therefore, it takes a monumental amount of effort to amass capital to make large purchases. Hence, if I choose to make such an investment, I would hope that I see returns from it as soon as possible. But this company has held my money for more than a month and, the sum is no small amount either. It is disgruntling since this situation has been occurring for as long as I have been doing business with this company; directly and indirectly; especially around the latter part of the year when demand is at its greatest. My plight is but a single dark spot from a large blotch that has been continuously growing as the years go by and, as more and more small farmers new and old experience the same abuse from this company.
“Why is this happening?” is a question I have asked the company many times already, and received the vaguest of responses, although the responses are consistently vague, which somehow becomes a consolation for poor members of society like us. The fact of the matter is that “big boys” and “small boys” exist in the hierarchy we call society. The “big boys” or the more respectable term, larger businesses, take priority over smaller businesses; a fact that is undeniable and inescapable. Personally, I cannot have a problem with this mentality; it becomes an issue, however, when this privilege is abused. The company has been constantly rescheduling the collection dates for small farmers like myself. They will confirm that you can pick up your chickens on a certain date and then rescind their statement, with us suffering the financial consequences. Furthermore, some farmers spend hours waiting, some coming from places we forget exist, leaving at times when most are still asleep, only to be turned away by the company. They won’t engage in such behaviour with the larger businesses; evidenced by the faces regularly present to uplift their chickens whenever you visit the company on a hatching date.
Lastly, this issue brings you to the realization that the whole venture is a bit pyramidal in its operation. The company holds the monies of smaller businesses like mine, for weeks on end, meanwhile, they allow for bigger purchasers to operate on credit. Our hard-earned cash is being held in company’s account, interest accruing on it, their cash flowing because of it, and, we are here being put off weekly for wanting a ‘minuscule’ amount of chickens. This is very unfair when it is already difficult to put food on our tables. The money that I worked for, that I earned, should be valued just as much as the credit from those large businesses. It has become an unnecessary quagmire for us poor men to circumnavigate. I really hope the relevant authorities look into this matter.
Sincerely,
(Name and Address Withheld)