The Tribune

By NATARIO McKENZIE

Tribune Business Reporter

nmckenzie@tribunemedia.net

AN Abaco-based poultry producer is targeting a strong harvest this autumn, but told Tribune Business yesterday that recent tax increases would result in a $0.05 per pound rise in its chicken prices.
 “We’re still at full speed,” said Lance Pinder, operations manager at Abaco Big Bird. The family-owned and operated poultry producer, which has been in business since 1995, nearly shut down last year, its business having dropped 60 per cent after the Government eliminated the permit regime for chicken imports.
 “We’ve had an OK summer, it’s been kind of cool,” said Mr Pinder, the Government having reversed the import regime move.

“We haven’t had a lot of the heat problems you normally get in summer with livestock down here. The weather always affects any kind of farming you do.

“We might have a good harvest this fall, so we’re hoping our feed costs might come down. Hopefully we don’t have a hurricane. We should have an OK year next year for the first time in a while. We might actually make a couple of dollars.”

But Mr Pinder added: “All these new Customs fees really threw us for a loop.

“We knew the 1 per cent was coming, but it’s just all the other stuff. It’s going to to cost us probably $30,000-$35,000 more a year in taxes. That’s going to be passed on; we can’t suck it up.

“A feed container used to cost us $180 to clear off the dock; now it’s costing us $400 to clear. Our plane is the worst, the one that brings us the young chicks. Now it’s $430 for that plane to come in here. These fees are going to add up to a $0.05 per pound increase on chicken, that’s probably how much we’re going to have to absorb that stuff.”

Abaco Big Bird has 35 full-time employees, and takes on an additional six to help with its lime and avocado crops.

Mr Pinder said the Bahamas’ World Trade Organisation (WTO) negotiations and the upcoming Value Added Tax (VAT) legislation were a major concern.

]“We’re very uneasy about the whole WTO and VAT thing and what kind of concessions the Government may get for farmers going into WTO,” said Mr Pinder.