The Caribbean Poultry Association (CPA) reaffirmed its support and commitment to Caricom’s initiative of a 25% by 2025 reduction in the regional food import bill, following the recently concluded 115th Special Meeting of the Council of Trade and Economic Development (COTED) – Agriculture and the 44th Meeting of its Board of Directors, a CPA release stated on Friday.
The association, which will celebrate its 25th anniversary in 2025, now represents stakeholders from the largest agribusiness in Caricom, including small, medium, and vertically integrated producers.
These stakeholders, the release said, are involved in the production of grains, poultry meat, eggs and value-added products as well as finished feeds for poultry, swine, cattle, sheep and fish. The CPA’s extensive network includes, among others, input suppliers, transportation services, technical specialists, managers, and operational staff distributed across various countries.
According to the release, the poultry sector accounts for just over 80 percent of the total animal protein in the diets of Caricom peoples. Corres-pondingly, there has been notable growth in broiler meat production in Guyana, Belize, Jamaica and Trinidad and Tobago, and as such, the region is 75 percent self-sufficient in broiler meat and approaching self-sufficiency in table eggs.
With the products of nine processing plants in Barbados, Belize, Guyana, Jamaica, and Trinidad and Tobago approved by the COTED for entry into member states and with that body’s further agreement that member states would work towards the adoption of the Caricom Regional Standard (CRS) 28:2012 – Specification for Poultry and Poultry Products, the CPA disclosed that it is positioning itself to increase production not only in grain, broiler meat and eggs, but also in value-added products and to trade these products to satisfy growing regional demand.
In this regard, the CPA listed recent initiatives amongst its members. Barbados, it said, was leading the way to further reduce the low carbon footprint of chicken production with rooftop solar on chicken houses and a new feed mill will soon be commissioned there. Belize, having achieved self-sufficiency in broiler meat, table eggs, hatching eggs, corn, and soya, is positioning itself for exports of broiler meats, the release said.
Guyana, it stated, harvested its first major crop of soya bean this year, displacing 12 percent of imported soya bean meal. The Government of Guy-ana is supporting the industry to develop breeding farms to meet its hatching egg requirements and investments are underway in environmentally controlled housing for both egg and broiler production, it added. Jamaica has initiated intra-regional trade in value-added poultry products and is innovating to meet consumers’ evolving trends for flavours, convenience, eco-friendly brands, and products that promote personal well-being, the release said. Thirty percent of its hatching egg requirements are now met by local breeder farms.
In Suriname, high priority has been placed on utilising all available by-products in its feed formulations with significant use of rice, rice bran, fishmeal, and wheat middling, the CPA revealed. And in Trinidad and Tobago a balanced industry is being maintained with 60% of broiler meat produced by integrated operators and 40% small farmers. There have been major investments in hatcheries and environmentally controlled housing to support a market that consumes one million chickens a week.
