A SOARING demand for chicken meat forced by the ban on U.S. beef imports by Government last year and has now outstripped current production capacities of local chicken producers, Caribbean Broilers and Jamaica Broilers.
And in addition to the shortage, distributors are also concerned about an impending increase in chicken prices which producers have blamed on the shifty nature of soybean and corn prices on the world market which is now in high demand.
Both companies are now promising to expand business quickly to fill the gap, a promise some distributors are not sure will bear much fruit. They say that a plausible solution would be for the Government to grant a concession on imported leg quarters until the companies can sort their problems out.
"The supply (of chicken) has been short," said Stacey-Ann Campbell, assistant in charge of local purchases at National Meats and Food Distributors Limited. "The supply has been 40 to 60 per cent short on chicken orders while orders on chicken parts have been between 75 to 90 per cent short of what we ordered at times."
NEGATIVE IMPACT
Ms. Campbell explained that in many cases her company is locked into contracts with hotels and other establishments and the situation has been having a negative impact.
"What we here at National Meats are asking is for a concession on leg quarters because even yesterday I spoke with Caribbean Broilers and they are not certain how soon they will expand."
The Government, several years ago and with an assurance from local chicken producers that not only could they adequately supply the market but were confident there would not be much if any increase to the price of chicken, imposed in excess of 200 per cent tariff on imported chicken parts. Since then there have been a number of hikes on the price of chicken.
In Christiana, Manchester, one representative of the SuperPlus Food Store there explained to The Gleaner that, "last week we ordered 60 bags of chicken from Best Dressed and we got 20, this week we ordered the same and we only got 15. If you check the restaurants down here after a certain time you cannot get chicken. All they have told us is that the chicken is short."
"I don't know what is happening," said Ainsley Bernard, a supervisor at the Spanish Grain Store in Kingston who also distributes chicken. "For one order we would generally order 500 bags (of 22 kg chicken) but for the last few weeks, the most we get is 100 bags," he said.
LOCAL PRODUCERS
"I don't think the Jamaican public should be held at ransom because our local producers cannot meet the demand," said Andrew Lewis, purchasing manager at National Meats. "Our government must respond. All of us eat chicken. Chicken is a staple," he added.
According to Dr. Keith Amiel, corporate affairs manager at Caribbean Broilers, the kind of demand for chicken currently sweeping the island was not expected at this time.
"We (chicken industry) are producing chicken at a very high rate as a result of the ban on beef. The shift has been towards chicken to compensate for the beef. Next week will be a record for Jamaica as we will be producing 2 million kilograms of chicken per week. We don't normally produce like this unless it is Christmas," said Dr. Amiel.
The Ministry of Agriculture has placed a temporary ban on imported beef from the United States. This came about as a result of the single case of mad cow disease that was reported in that country late last year.
Dr. Amiel explained further that: "We (both companies) will respond by producing more chicken. As of Monday (next week) there will be more chicks in circulation for small farmers."
