Poultry Industry Says It Can No Longer Absorb Losses as Prices Increase

Chicken is a staple on many Belizean dinner tables, but families will now have to dig a little deeper to put it there. The Belize Poultry Association says the price of whole chicken is going up because producers can no longer absorb rising costs. According to the association’s manager, Armando Cowo, the biggest pressure comes from a sharp increase in the cost of imported premix from Europe, a key ingredient used to make chicken feed locally. With the next shipment costing significantly more, feed mills are now trying to recover those expenses, and that increase is being passed on to consumers.

 

Armando Cowo, Manager, Belize Poultry Association

“The reality is that we are having a price increase as a necessary adjustment due to the current situation we are facing. It’s what some people call imported inflation. It is affecting us, rippling down the chain. We have the feed which is one of the main inputs in this industry and the feed comes from grain farmers and the prices of grain has been going up, both corn and soy and they have been rising since a couple months. Then we have within that same feed environment, which is the premix which comes from the Netherlands and our feed premix has gotten more expensive. This next shipment we ordered, the price has changed dramatically. And it is affecting the cost of feed, because it is added.”

Fuel Prices Help Push Chicken Beyond Family Budgets

 

The rising cost of chicken is not only about feed. The Belize Poultry Association says fuel prices are also helping drive up the price consumers now pay for poultry. Manager Armando Cowo explains that the industry depends heavily on energy at every stage, from production and processing to transportation and delivery. With those costs climbing, poultry producers say they can no longer absorb the pressure, and consumers are now feeling it at the checkout counter.

 

Armando Cowo, Manager, Belize Poultry Association

“Just like how it is affecting us with the fuel prices our farmers use to move around. The whole supply chain runs on fuel. So, from the farmer getting ready his field to plant his grains right  down to the harvesting of grains and we buy the grains. They try to recover cost and make a profit. Then we have the situation with premix. And then we have the current situation with ourselves, our trucks run on fuel. From the chick, from the get-go, the hatching eggs are imported we pick it up at the airport and burns fuel. It goes to the hatchery; the barn burns fuel. The feed that goes to the barn again it is by using trucks, fuel. We are ready for harvest, we harvest it is fuel again. The truck get loaded, goes to the processing plant, through the processing plant as a finished product, for distribution, fuel again. We are an energy intensive industry.”

 

The association increased prices by six cents in March but says that increase was primarily due to rising labor costs.

 

Attention readers: This online newscast is a direct transcript of our evening television broadcast. When speakers use Kriol, we have carefully rendered their words using a standard spelling system.

 

Watch the full newscast here: