Agriculture Minister Zulfikar Mustapha during his engagement with members of the Private Sector Commission.
GEORGETOWN, Guyana--The recent approval of the importation of 330,000 pounds of chicken weekly is expected to increase supply and stabilise prices, Agriculture Minister Zulfikar Mustapha has said.
Over the next few weeks as the country responds to increased demand and pressure on local production, Mustapha said the decision was made following discussions with the poultry producers’ association and an analysis of local production, supply and demand.
“I have said that the demand has increased tremendously, the local demand in our country, the consumption in our country have increased tremendously. And that puts a strain also on the production and supply in our country. And I don’t want the price to escalate,” Mustapha said.
Poultry producers requested permission to import a limited amount of chicken, prompting an assessment of the current production and supply situation.
“We’ll be importing approximately 330,000 pounds on a weekly basis, so that we can get back production to normal, we can get back supply to normal,” Mustapha said.
The New Guyana Marketing Corporation (New GMC) is facilitating the importation process, with the chicken to be distributed through local distributors and suppliers across the country. The Minister said the process will remain subject to monitoring and oversight to ensure that the intervention achieves its intended purpose and that the market remains stable.
Mustapha last week made it clear that the imports are intended to prevent chicken prices from rising while local production recovers.
“That amount of chicken coming in the country would not cause chicken price to go up. We will have a stable price, and a price will be there, but I think by the end of this month, we should be back to normal, our production level, we’ll continue to go up,” the minister said.
At the same time, the Minister said ongoing investments in the poultry sector, including ventilated poultry houses being operated by young people will help this sector grow.
“And besides what I’ve been producing over the years, we have now five ton of ventilated pens that young people are operating with 40,000 birds that will come out every six weeks. We have six cycle of that, and by the end of this year, we’ll have 13 of those pen operable,” he said.
Mustapha said production is expected to increase significantly as new facilities come on stream and private investors expand their involvement in poultry production.
