The Tribune

By YOURI KEMP

Tribune Business Reporter

ykemp@tribunemedia.net

An Abaco-based poultry supplier believes it can hit 30 percent of pre-Dorian production levels by this May with plans to exclusively target its most lucrative market.

Lance Pinder, operations manager at Abaco Big Bird Poultry Farm, told Tribune Business it would initially focus on supplying Abaco as Nassau’s “high volume, low profit” model meant it had not been a viable market for the company pre-Dorian.

“We have kind of figured out how to get up and running,” Mr Pinder said. “We think that we may have some production of the chickens by May. But the production will be limited, and maybe about 20 or 30 percent of what we normally would have produced.

“We just identified the minimal amount of investment we had to do to get back up and running. We need probably $2.5m to get the farm back to where it was. But we can’t put the farm back in full capacity to where it was pre-Dorian. You still have to do it in incremental stages and grow as the market in Abaco grows.”

Mr Pinder added: “The Nassau market is not viable for our business model to survive as it was. The Nassau market is a high volume and low profit market. What we may do first when we start to get back into Nassau is target our partners like AML [Foods] with some of our products, but as it is right now it is not an option for us - the Abaco market is our market and where we make the most of our money.”

He challenged Michael Pintard, minister for agriculture and marine resources, to fulfill pledges to provide Abaco Big Bird with a Crown Land grant “We have been trying to meet with minister Pintard, but he keeps shuffling us around,” Mr Pinder said. “Every time it’s talk to this person and that person.

“We haven’t gotten any solid information on anything. I know instructions have been given to the land unit in agriculture, and we also had our application in from the last administration back in 2014. But no movement on our crown grant has happened yet. Not even a word.”

Mr Pinder added: “Things are still very slow over here. But I did notice half of the people on the plane coming in from West Palm Beach looked like second home owners coming back to Abaco, so that’s a good sign. In South Abaco we have had some people come back already for bone fishing. There are some parts of Abaco that’s open for business thankfully.

“I want the government to do something about the water supply in Cherokee Sound. From what I understand, there is an agreement between the Winding Bay property and the Government for Winding Bay to supply water to South Abaco, but since the storm we have not been getting steady water supply. It is unbearable. Tourists that come into South Abaco don’t even have access to water. Something must be done.”