LORRIMERS, Trelawny — Minister of Agriculture Floyd Green has revealed that in addition to the $86-million allocation to poultry farmers as an immediate response to the losses suffered during the passage of Hurricane Beryl, the issue of the removal of General Consumption Tax (GCT) from eggs has again been placed before Minister of Finance Dr Nigel Clarke.

“We continue discussion, and clearly in light of the significant fallout it is something that we have raised again and we await to hear from the ministry [of finance],” Green told the
Jamaica Observer during a tour of yam farms in southern Trelawny last week.

“It’s a discussion that we always have. From the Ministry of Agriculture we will always advocate for the removal of things like GCT on items like egg and also other input. It is always a balance. It lies with the Ministry of Finance and part of what the minister [of finance] has said from time to time is, ‘Let us try and give targeted support.’ Removing GCT is a broad-based support, but let us try [to] give targeted support. So let us see who are those farmers who are impacted and how can we help get them back up and running,” added Green.

He pointed out that the $86 million to poultry farmers forms part of a $700-million Government allocation to farmers impacted by the July 3 hurricane.

According to Green, $60 of the $86 million is to go directly to poultry farmers to assist some of those egg farmers to restock, while the remainder is earmarked to provide assistance for those who saw destruction to their chicken houses.

The agriculture minister outlined that poultry farmers, including “those who do broilers and those who do layers”, were among the farmers who sustained the most losses during the passage of the hurricane.

“We saw over 300,000 animals been lost during Hurricane Beryl, the vast majority of that were birds. So a number of our farmers would have lost layers — again our other small poultry farmers, those backyard farmers — would have lost their broilers,” said Green.

In the meantime president of the Egg Farmers Association Mark Campbell told the
Observer that his members have reported losses of some $139 million from Beryl.

Campbell said that as a result of the hurricane farmers lost some 3,000 birds, 9,009 boxes of eggs, and recorded major damage to infrastructure.

“The 9,009 boxes of egg valued $108 million. The mortality… the number of birds dead is [put at] $4.8-million worth. The structural damage is $26 million, so the total is $139 million.

“Four hundred and twenty-nine boxes per day and we work it on a 21-day cycle because we say the birds should return to normal production within 21 days. In 21 days we would have lost 9,009 boxes of eggs. Twenty-seven thousand dozens would be out of the system in a 21 day period. That’s the cycle; in 21 days they should come back,” said Campbell.

He pointed out that while the farmers in St Elizabeth suffered the brunt of the losses, all egg farmers faced a fall-off of production.

“The birds went through this traumatic experience with the wind and the rain and so on, so they have reacted to that by cutting production due to stress,” Campbell argued.

“The good thing is that this time of the year is usually not a high-demand period for eggs, in this summer period here,” added Campbell.