WESTERN BUREAU:
HOTELIERS AND importers are welcoming the Government's decision to grant a three-month waiver on the freight charges of beef air freighted into the island, in light of the chronic shortage of prime beef cuts facing the tourist industry.
They are reacting to an announcement on the weekend by the Agriculture Ministry, that the Finance Ministry had given the thumbs up to a three-month reprieve from imported fees on beef air freighted into Jamaica, in the face of the beef shortage since the ban on U.S. beef in December. The waiver will initially last for three months and then the Finance Ministry will revisit the matter.
Bringing beef into the island by sea attracts 86 per cent duty on the cost, insurance and freight (CIF) value of the shipment. However, by air, the importer pays freight charges of US$4 on each pound of beef, in addition to 86 per cent duty on the CIF. With the three-month reprieve, the US$4 per pound freight charge is to be thrown out the window.
Godfrey Dyer, president of the Jamaica Hotel and Tourist Association (JHTA), said he was 'happy that the Government responded quickly' to the written demand for the waiver that he had submitted two weeks ago, on behalf of the importers and tourism interests.
"Most hoteliers will not be able to wait until the ocean-freighted beef from Australia reaches here in another four weeks, because they are either out of choice cuts of beef or running seriously low," Mr. Dyer told The Gleaner in an interview yesterday. "So freeing up the restrictions on beef being flown here at affordable rates is the right thing to do."
THREE-MONTH REPRIEVE
VERY ADEQUATE
He is of the view that the three-month timeline on the reprieve is also 'a very adequate' ceiling. He does not foresee any scarcity of the commodity, since several shipments of ocean-freighted beef would also have arrived in the island to complement air-freighted supplies, during that three-month period.
Importers Caribbean Producers Jamaica Ltd. (CPJ), agrees.
"Three months is an adequate time for us to replenish local supplies of beef for the tourist industry, by air and sea freight," Mark Hart, chief executive officer of CPJ, told The Gleaner yesterday.
FIRST ARRIVAL MARCH 14
CPJ said it would this week be evaluating the situation to determine when and if it needed to airlift beef from Australia. That importer is also expecting its first ocean-freighted container of beef from Australia to arrive in the island on March 14. The container shipment of beef is valued at US$140,000.
CPJ was one of the companies that two weeks ago led the charge for the lowering of duties on air-freighted beef, insisting that a temporary waiver was needed to get chefs the quality beef that the tourists want and which local farmers are unable to supply.
But even as some importers welcome the move, they are pressing for another long-term demand, in the name of affordability. They want the Government to lower 'exorbitant duties' on all prime cuts destined solely for the tourist industry, which are sea-freighted or air- freighted into the island.
"When prime cuts are imported into the island, they don't compete with the local beef producers, since those cuts are just not available locally. So this 86 per cent duty on sea-freighted beef is limiting our purchasing power of prime cuts overseas and I think that the Finance Ministry needs to look at lowering it significantly," Mr. Hart suggested.
