The Tribune

By YOURI KEMP

Tribune Business Reporter

ykemp@tribunemedia.net

AN ABACO poultry farmer was yesterday still waiting for the Government to give him ownership of his property despite the transaction being verbally approved by the Prime Minister.

Lance Pinder, Abaco Big Bird Poultry’s operations manager, told Tribune Business that the eight-year wait for his leased property to be conveyed to him continues. “We had first applied two years before the Perry Christie administration ended, so that has been well over seven years now. We are on our second 21-year lease right now,” he disclosed.

“The Prime Minister (Philip Davis KC) had given me approval for it last March. That’s what he had told me..... that he had given approval for it to go ahead but, to be honest, I have been so busy that I haven’t been able to push it and follow up with it as I probably should. You have to pull so many teeth.”

Obtaining title ownership to the 100 Crown Land acres that Abaco Big Bird currently leases assumed additional importance after Hurricane Dorian devastated its operations in early September 2019. The farm was unable to use the land as collateral for repair financing since it was only a tenant, which severely hampered its reconstruction efforts.

Abaco Big Bird is still not operating at 100 percent capacity and is “stagnated”. This situation is being worsened by “supply chain issues” and a shortage of baby chicks. “We’re getting our inventory back to a healthy level now, and hopefully the chick shortage will sort itself out. It seemed to have settled down for a bit, and if that continues then maybe we can get back to expanding the business again,” Mr Pinder added.

“When you own the property it opens up more way more opportunities for you for financing, and to feel better about investing serious money in it yourself. If you’re growing tomatoes, which is a three-month crop, you don’t feel so bad about it. But when you build $100,000 chicken coops, or avocados that take five and six years just to mature to start getting a lot of revenue out, you feel a little a little more hurt when you don’t own it.”

Abaco Big Bird began operations in 1995 when Mr Pinder was in his late 20s. Now aged 47, he does not want to make it to his sixties without owning the property. “I’ve been at this since I was in my 20s and I’m 47 now, but what am I going to do when I’m 67 years-old? I would have worked for my whole life up here and don’t even own the land? That’s not a good feeling,” he said.

“The Government started putting a lot of money into agriculture, so hopefully some of it will take. But the Government can’t do it all either, and people from the private sector have to step up and participate, buy the stuff and support the farmers.