In a bid to protect local farmers against chicken smuggling while at the same time safeguarding against contaminated produce entering the country, the Guyana Livestock Development Authority (GLDA) has notified that poultry and poultry products would not be allowed into the country.
The GLDA, however, did not say for how long the restrictions will last.
As he pointed to the surplus of local chicken on the market, Minister of Agriculture, Zulfikar Mustapha, said that government was protecting the local farmers, as he assured that the country has enough stock.
“The Guyana Livestock Development Authority wishes to advise the general public that due to sanitary and other conditions we will not allow the importation of poultry or poultry products. Anyone found in contradiction of this notice will be prosecuted in accordance with the Laws of Guyana,” a notice in yesterday’s Guyana Chronicle stated.
Contacted for comment on the notice, Mustapha explained that the ban was intended to protect local farmers while also safeguarding against bird flu.
He emphasised that because of the current large supply, chicken prices will not increase.
“We have put a ban on the importation of chicken because we have enough chicken in the country. The supplies are there from local farmers and also we have to protect the local farmers,” he told members of the media.
“Also we are looking at the sanitary outcome of it, because of the bird flu some countries in the hemisphere had the bird flu too. So we are taking a lot of precautions. But that doesn’t mean that because we stop the importation of chicken the prices will increase. We have enough chicken,” he assured.
The Minister of Agriculture said that assurances were given from the Guyana Poultry Producers Association (GPPA) when he had held a meeting with them, that there were enough supplies and thus there was no need for importation of the products.
In addition, he disclosed that his ministry has also conducted a cross-country analysis which revealed that there is enough poultry here.
“The Guyana poultry dealers association told me, I have had a meeting with them and they told me we have enough supplies and there are a number of farmers who are getting more supplies. The market has been saturated with enough local chicken there is no need to import any chicken,” he said.
“The Ministry of Agri-culture that has the responsibility for the importation or giving the approval, we have done analysis in the country and there is enough production of chicken and poultry products to satisfy the local needs,” he added.
GPPA President David Fernandes and head of Bounty Farms which is one of this country’s largest poultry producers told Stabroek News that he doesn’t foresee any price increases.
Sources told this newspaper that the ban focusses more on cutting down on smuggling which has negatively affected local farmers. “The smuggling is affecting the small farmers. They have to be stern if they want to stop the smuggling.”
Another pointed out that with smuggled chicken, there are no regulatory checks, so no one knows the conditions under which the chickens were reared or brought into this country.
The GPPA had in March called on government to urgently address the smuggling of chicken over the country’s eastern and southern borders and the Guyana Revenue Authority (GRA) said it was aware of the problem and was addressing it.
Their call came even as local producers had bemoaned the current cost of feed here, while some producers in Region Nine lamented that production against competition from Brazil was not sustainable.
“Poultry Producers are alarmed at the increased visibility of smuggled chicken on the local market. These mainly arrive via our eastern and southern borders,” the GPPA had said in a statement.
“…Poultry producers are concerned about increased smuggling activities. It is affecting investments in the local industry as planning and forecasting becomes very difficult, even the importation of hatching eggs becomes hard to plan leading to shortages and decline in local production. In consequence, smuggling activities is disruptive to our national and regional goals of achieving food security,” the body added.
The group charged that checks with retailers revealed that the smuggling is done by city based-persons well known for this kind of activity. Sources say that surveillance and enforcement are being frustrated by the smugglers’ connections to persons in authority.
GRA Commissioner General, Godfrey Statia, had told Stabroek News that the agency is aware of complaints of smuggling and was at the time investigating.
Poultry farmers in Mahaicony in Region Five also pleaded with the Ministry of Agriculture to intervene to stem the importation/smuggling of chicken into Guyana which they say is resulting in reduced sales for them in the local markets.
“Persons killing their own local farmers because they are importing their chicken from Brazil and selling it back for a lower price than ours, but we local farmers can’t do anything about it because we can’t sell our chicken at a much lower price when feed and those things gone up,” poultry farmer, Mark Ross was quoted as saying.
Ross said that he had, at that time, approximately 10,000 birds in his poultry farm which are ready to be sold but he hardly gets sales due to the quantity of the imported ones on the market. He implored the government to step in and deal with the matter since local farmers were suffering great losses at the hands of other Guyanese vendors and businesses who choose to import and even smuggle their chicken.
The farmer had said that he had a meeting with Mustapha and he had promised to look into the matter and call another meeting to address the interventions but nothing so far has been done.
