Bahamas poultry vulnerable
The Bahamas’ poultry industry is facing a significant threat due to escalating prices of cereals, particularly corn, which is a major component of manufactured animal feed for poultry production.
The poultry industry in The Bahamas is battling due to:
- Cheap poultry parts (leg quarters, wings and backs) are flooding the market.
- In 2001 when the The Bahamas government decreased the duty on poultry from 70% to 35%. This allowed open access for imports, undermining local producers as parts are sold at a price, which is less than the cost of production.
- Importers are utilising tactics to control the egg market. Local egg producers are currently supplying the market at 95-96% self-sufficiency. Importers are contributing to destabilising the market by using specialty egg products as a pretext to import foreign eggs.
There is scope for growth of broiler production in The Bahamas; however producers, like Bahamas Poultry, are finding it difficult to survive in the market where broiler by-products are being dumped. Egg producers like Rainbow Farms and Sunshine Farms in New Providence are contemplating contraction as a result of the poor marketing environment.
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