Minister of Agriculture, Zulfikar Mustapha yesterday strongly refuted claims by the opposition of chicken smuggling and instructing police to release shipments being transported from Suriname to the New Guyana Marketing Corporation.
The Ministry of Agriculture in a statement yesterday said that the minister refutes “in the strongest possible terms the malicious, false, and libelous claims and allegations of the smuggling of chicken made by the Office of the Leader of the Opposition.”
The statement from the Ministry was triggered by the claims of the opposition which were released on all of their social media platforms yesterday.
According to the ministry, the decision to import chicken was made by the Government of Guyana. “This became necessary since the local chicken consumption has vastly increased, resulting in the local supply being unable to meet the growing demand.”
Further, the ministry said that in addition to the increased local consumption, “the local chicken industry was seriously affected by an outbreak of avian influenza in the United States of America earlier in this year. That outbreak, in turn, negatively affected the importation of hatching eggs, which led to the depletion of an already inadequate supply of chicken in Guyana.”
It stressed that the decision to import chicken was to not only ensure adequate supplies but also to stabilize prices in an effort to protect consumers.
“In the circumstances, the Guyana Marketing Corporation (GMC), a Public Corporation, owned and controlled by the Government of Guyana and which falls under the supervisory authority of the Ministry of Agriculture was duly instructed and authorized to import chicken in order to meet the demand of the local market.”
Further, the ministry supplied documents relating to the importation of the chicken.
“As a result, the office of the Leader of the Opposition is hereby called upon to withdraw this baseless, reckless and libelous allegation immediately. The statement has already been sent for legal advice. Unless withdrawn, legal proceedings will be instituted.”
