Worrisome times for the poultry industry
Editorial
Stabroek News
December 1, 2006
For several very good reasons we ought to be concerned about the problems currently afflicting the local poultry industry. The least of those reasons is the anticipated shortage of chicken during the approaching Christmas season since Christmas will come and go and at any rate we have had official assurances that chicken will be imported to address the local production shortfall.
The first of the longer-term, more troubling reasons why we should be concerned has to do with the fact that the industry's problems have come just months after official pronouncements that Guyana may be on the verge of arriving at attaining an export capacity for poultry meat. We can now safely assume that given the reported mortality rate - resulting from the recent scourges of stunted growth and another disease that reportedly affects the heart and liver of birds - and the announcement that chicken will have to be imported in order to satisfy the anticipated seasonal demand, those pronouncements will now have to be reassessed.
The second reason is linked to the first. Apart from our ability to produce enough chicken to fill export orders there are also health issues to be considered. Overseas orders for local poultry meat will certainly not materialize until we can satisfy the health requirements of importing countries and it is reasonable to assume that we will be unable to provide those guarantees overnight.
The third concern is associated with what appears to be a lack of technical expertise and laboratory facilities to support the local poultry industry. An estimated 5,000 poultry rearing operations - including several large ones - are scattered across the country and one would have thought that over the years we would have developed the laboratory facilities and technical expertise to ascertain the causes of poultry diseases and apply the necessary remedial measures. This issue, of course, assumes a more poignant relevance when account is taken of the fact that more than a year ago the local poultry industry was placed on high alert as a result of the dreaded Avian Flu that has decimated poultry operations in Asia, Europe and other parts of the world.
The fourth reason for concern has to do with the fact that from all reports several sizeable investments in poultry have now gone down the drain as a result of the problems and investors, many of them small operators, are now left with liabilities to lending institutions and no resources with which to settle those liabilities. The Linden situation where more than two dozen persons are indebted to the Linden Economic Advancement Fund (LEAF) to the tune of several million dollars is a case in point.
Part of the challenge facing the Ministry of Agriculture is that of restoring confidence in the industry particularly among the small operators, many of whom are perhaps first-timers who are bound to be nervous about risking further investments in poultry until they are fully satisfied that the problems that have undermined their investments this time around are well and truly behind us.