The Tribune

By NATARIO McKENZIE

Tribune Business Reporter

nmckenzie@tribunemedia.net

AN Abaco-based poultry producer is still being challenged by high feed costs coming off a “terrible December and January”, calling for the 30 per cent duty on imported poultry to be “tweaked a bit” as it was selling certain portions at a big loss due.

Lance Pinder, operations manager at Abaco BIg Bird, told Tribune Business the poultry producer had also been challenged by broiler egg shortages. “Sales have been OK. Earlier this year we had problems,” he said.

“ December to January were terrible. We may need to raise our prices because everything has gone up. Business has been tough, as it is for pretty much everyone else. Our costs are still going up because of feed and there is still a shortage of broiler eggs. We had some weeks where we couldn’t get chicks

“ Leg quarters are still a big problem because the US is still dumping them at $0.40 cents-$0.50 cents per pound. When they get here they’re about $0.75 cents. It’s still very below the cost of production. Hopefully,something can be done with that. It’s almost impossible for us to produce something at that price,but it’s just a by-product for them. We have to sell our leg quarters at a loss just to get them out of the freezer,” said Mr Pinder.

He further explained: “We sell our leg quarters at $0.80 cents per pound. That’s a big loss. We’re losing $0.30 cents- $0.40 cents per pound on that. I know it’s a difficult situation and people are hurting right now. I’m certainly not advocating a 100 per cent duty rate, but it could be tweaked a bit. Duty on poultry is 30 per cent.”

Mr Pinder added, however, that the farm was employing various measures to remain competitive, and has maintained steady support from major Nassau-based retailers. He said Abaco Big Bird was also hoping to secure business with Baha Mar.

“We have seen a bigger demand for boneless breast than we have seen in our 20 years in business. We have been trying to get some parts into Nassau. People are moving away from the whole bird market. We could sell wings, for instance, to offset the cost of leg quarters.”

Abaco Big Bird, according to Mr Pinder, employs 35-40 people and produces 2-2.5 million pounds of poultry annually.