A detailed analysis of the agricultural sector and imports of several countries within the Caribbean Community (CARICOM) has revealed that nearly all of the poultry meat consumed in the region in 2020 was imported at the cost of millions.
Guyana’s President Dr. Irfaan Ali, who presented this analysis to other CARICOM leaders on Tuesday, has offered solutions to cut imports by producing more poultry and feed in the region. President Ali highlighted that extra-regional markets (that is, countries outside of CARICOM) supplied an estimated 98.8 percent of the poultry imported by CARICOM member states in 2020.
Those poultry imports, ranging from the meat of ducks, geese, turkeys, and guinea fowls that are fresh, chilled, or frozen was US$ 242.288 million.
Only 1.2 percent of poultry demanded was imported from within the region. And in that same year, only six CARICOM countries- Barbados, Belize, Guyana, Jamaica, Suriname, and Trinidad and Tobago- produced 83 percent of the poultry in the region.
To illustrate just how sizable the region’s poultry imports are, the Guyanese Head-of-State provided figures which illustrated that poultry meat is the product with the sixth-largest volume of imports in the region. The other products imported in much larger volumes are rice, wheat, corn, sugar, and edible vegetables and roots.
Additionally, the import of poultry meat is the region’s third most expensive import product, at a value of US $746.8 million. Only dairy products and rice cost the region more, with dairy imports costing US $1.02 billion and rice, a cost of US $980.5 million.
Importantly, poultry plants in these six aforementioned CARICOM Member States met the sanitary requirements to enter the CARICOM Market in 2018. And as such, there appears to be greater leeway to scale-up production.
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