By Erica James-King, Staff ReporterWESTERN BUREAU: LOCAL PATTY producers have complained of a shortage of beef and beef suet used to make the product, as the ban on United States beef drags into its seventh month.
The shortage has been confirmed by Agriculture Minister Roger Clarke, who has insisted that the ban will not be lifted until the Government is satisfied that the health of Jamaicans will not be jeopardised.
"There is definitely a shortage of beef, especially beef suet, facing the patty people at this time. We have also picked up a problem with some of our hamburger producers, where the availability of suet is concerned, " said Minister Clarke. His comments come on the heels of two suspected cases of mad cow disease that has surfaced in the U.S. during the past two weeks. Patty establishments rely on locally produced beef. However, the major players in the patty sector say the prohibition on U.S. beef has created a significant demand for local beef by restaurateurs and the hotel industry, which had previously relied heavily on beef imports. Owing to the uncompetitive nature of the local cattle industry prior to the ban, most farmers had slashed their beef production and are now unable to satisfy the current high demand for beef.
Tastee Limited, which has 17 patty outlets islandwide, confesses to having problems sourcing beef because of the beef scarcity plaguing the local meat industry. Noting that his company relied solely on local beef, Vincent Chang, Tastee's Managing Director said that not only is there a shortage in the local beef market for several months now, but "the problem is getting worse".
The company notes that in some cases, orders are only being partially filled by its suppliers. This has forced the company to dip into its beef reserves on a more regular basis.
The scarcity has also created another problem -massive price hikes in the main raw material for patty. "Local beef prices have increased to over 100 per cent from November of last year," complained Mr. Chang yesterday.
The management of Tastee is cautioning that within the next four to five months, if the situation with regards to the availability of beef for the patty industry does not improve, it could be forced to import beef. "We have been exploring importing beef from Panama, Australia or New Zealand. However, these prices are high and as well duties have to be paid," Mr. Chang explained. If the path of beef imports is pursued, the company believes it could have a ripple effect of pushing up the price of patties to consumers.
Mothers and Juci patties have also encountered the beef shortage, and are contemplating going the route of imports, if the crisis is not eased by year end. "For the 23 years that we have been in existence, we have never had to import beef. But in the past two months, we have been experiencing a shortage of beef from our main suppliers," concedes Carlisle Hudson, operations manager of Mothers.
Meanwhile, although the ban on beef suet (fat) from the United States was removed in March this year, this has left some fast food establishments in a financial bind, since they were forced to pay higher prices for the commodity in other countries. Some major patty players have agonised that it cost them 40 per cent more to import beef suet from Panama while prices were 60 per cent higher than normal to import from Australia.
