The second-longest organised mother farm concept to food production in Jamaica is the poultry industry. History is replete with the virtues of this business model in Jamaica’s poultry and sugar cane industries and, therefore, I will not begin to itemise its virtues. However, in recent times the poultry industry has been ailing, mainly for reasons which most stakeholders dare not utter in the public space. Culpability would not be hard to find in government policies, the leadership of the farming sectors, and the conduct of the major players.

The poultry industry operates as a duopoly and the share dominance of these giants force the other players to whimper into submission to their anti-competitive practices. The other minions in the sector amount to over 150,000 farmers who are weak and seemingly loosely represented by the Jamaica Agricultural Society (JAS). I say loosely represented because that body can barely determine if it is going or coming in any of the activities with which it believes it could fool the farmers.

This JAS has stood idly by and allowed the duopoly — which is hostile to and discriminate against its members — to develop, destroy budding investors along the production chain, control the supply chain, and, in many instances, drive small poultry industry producers out of business.

The JAS has now found its voice to be pontificating on a perceived destruction of these helpless and sometimes hapless 150,000 small players by the action of a minister of agriculture, whose intention happens to be for their continued survival and the nutrition of the Jamaican people.

I have heard former senator and past JAS president waxing warm on national TV in a truculently stout defence of the duopoly. He never stopped to think that the more than 150,000 operating without the clutches of the duopoly could be spawned, thereby reducing the cost of the protein to the populace.

The significant import substitution opportunity in Jamaica relates to approximately US$14 million in imports of chicken back and neck. This cannot be filled based on the present level of investment in the industry, and the reluctance of the dominant players to accommodate new large- and medium-sized entrants to the sector.

The duopoly, having invested heavily in the poultry industry in the USA, has exported products to be consumed in Jamaica. Aren’t they part of the American farming system that is benefiting from the insatiable appetite of the Jamaicans for American poultry products? This is the hypocrisy that exists in the poultry business in Jamaica with the misinformed comment that the minister is killing Jamaican farmers while supporting American farmers.

Jamaica has a number of very strong poultry producers operating within the context of a duopoly. It would appear that they have resigned to the fact that the imported chicken neck and back is five times the capacity to produce locally. Frozen backs and necks have the lowest combined taxes and duties (16 per cent compared to 196 per cent for all other chicken parts). It is for this reason that the local large producers are comfortable in their inefficiencies and reckless in their social responsibilities and outlook.

The announced increased in the price of chicken meat by the duopoly is not only unconscionable but revolts the human conscience of good reason and common sense. There are deep-seated inefficiencies in their production systems. They declare billions of dollars in net profit each year. They do not tolerate competition. They arbitrarily impose price increases on baby chicks and broiler ration, while they manipulate the production outputs. They are also importers of chicken meat from the USA in direct competition with other small importers.

The players in the duopoly exhibit a stranglehold on the industry to the point where there is no other way out except for smaller farmers to gather the crumbs that fall from their table. They are the only ones who are in the business of producing hatchlings, they are the only ones involved in the manufacture of poultry ration, they are the only ones that import poultry ration for sale locally. Small and medium sized farmers have no option other than to purchase both baby chicks and the ration from the only source available to them. It therefore means that the farmers are at a distinct disadvantage when they end up having to compete in the marketplace with the very same duopoly who provide the basic resources needed to produce every ounce of chicken flesh and every egg.

The proposed removal of the common external tariff (CET) on imported leg quarters as a sunset initiative represents only a part of the comprehensive development programme that the Government has for the sustainability of the small chicken farmers and the industry in general.

The price of chicken meat can be made much lower if the major players in the industry cooperate with the stakeholder community and release the strangulation they cause. The perceived anti-competitive practices by these players in the sector has necessitated the consideration for CET removal as one of the enlightened mechanisms to make protein available at affordable prices to the Jamaican population.

Can anyone explain why is it that one of the duopoly has no inventory to supply the market since last year August, yet it seeks to increase prices on its dwindling stock? Can anyone reveal the reason many of the 150,000 have to be leaving the business by reason of lack of baby chicks and poultry feed?

What is the true cost of production of a pound of chicken meat in Jamaica? The medium sized farmers are paid approximately $100 for live mature chicken (feed and medication supplied to them), yet the cost of the same chicken in the retail trade is over $1,000. What on Earth can you be doing with the chicken that causes a 1,000 per cent increase along the value chain? If these medium-sized contract farmers should complain for any reason then the sword of Damocles will cut their usual replacement flock supply by up to 50 per cent, thereby threatening the financial health of their business and ipso facto their livelihoods.

The minister of agriculture is facing a big pushback in his defence of the nutrition of the population when he announced a raft of initiatives to bring down the burgeoning chicken price and restructure the poultry industry, where the 150,000 and others can sustain their livelihoods in an environment of free and fair competition. This pushback must crumble under the weight of the questions and the concerns raised earlier in this script. The removal of the CET on the imported chicken ‘leg quarters’ is met by the duopoly and some misguided observers like ‘Red Flag in front of Spanish Bull’.

The Ministry of Agriculture is fully armed with all the information required to take a balanced and measured decision in this matter to protect the industry, while making food affordable to the population. I have no doubt — and to the best my informed knowledge of the international partnering’s of the duopoly — that there is some putrefying leg quarters with potential effluvia on Jamaica’s shore. I, therefore, have no doubt in my mind that the way forward in addressing the price of chicken meat as presented to Parliament recently by the minister is multifaceted and sustainable and reasonable.

The minister of agriculture may wish to actively consider the following if he wishes to preside over an industry with integrity and trustworthiness, and one which is free from fear and free and fair:

1) invoke the involvement of the fair competition and subsidies commission to determine what is the true cost of production of a pound of chicken. This is a vexing issue for over four decades without being addressed by officialdom. This will guide the minister in determining how to administrate the industry;

2) utilise the weight of the Agri-Invest Corporation to spawn the establishment of several hatcheries throughout the country with the intention of breaking the monopoly on baby chicks production; thereby, allowing the 150,000 to operate in a market free from control and reprisals; and

3) further utilise the weight of the Agricultural Investment Corporation Act to dismantle the monopoly on animal feed import, hatching eggs imports, and baby chick production.

The agribusiness community is expecting nothing less from the minister.

The vast majority of the agricultural sector is encouraged by the courage and fortitude of the minister of agriculture, supported by his stakeholders, to include farmers, consumers, and technocrats to take decisions that will not only benefit the few, but rather the entire agricultural sector.

Omer Thomas is an international agricultural development consultant. Send comments to the Jamaica Observer or phytovivaservices@yahoo.com.