Restaurant operator Stanley Clarke recently increased the price of his chicken meals by $100. He said he was forced to go that route as chicken meat prices have gone up because there is a shortage of the popular staple. There have been similar concerns about a shortage across the country with some people also pointing to challenges getting baby chicks.

“We’ve been noticing this from about week before last week; two full weeks would have gone by already,” Clarke, whose restaurant is in Falmouth, told the Jamaica Observer.

“Chicken short here now, and the price has gone up by nearly $50/$60 per pound. Depending on the amount, restaurants used to get for like $300, but now it is $360 per pound,” he explained.

However, Agriculture Minister Floyd Green is reluctant to declare a shortage just yet.

“We have reports of persons not being able to get their usual quantities and as such have asked the MOAFM [Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Mining] team to conduct a rapid assessment of our chicken supply. We have a poultry stakeholders meeting on Friday to present findings and get responses. As such, [we] wouldn’t be able to deem it a shortage as yet, but we have heard of reduced supply,” Green said in a written reply to the
Observer when contacted on Tuesday.

The minister attributed the hiccup in the market to Hurricane Beryl, which sideswiped Jamaica on July 3.

“We lost 300,000 birds as a result of Beryl, which would have significantly impacted our supply from small poultry farmers who account for about 30 per cent of domestic supply,” said Green. “The rapid assessment will unearth any other issues but complaints have only come recently.”

But meat shop operator and Justice of the Peace Patrick Kerr said he has noticed a shortage of Best Dressed Chicken for almost eight weeks and Caribbean Broilers’ (CB) chicken supply has been short for three to four weeks in Lucea, Hanover.

“It is a thing that is affecting the entire island,” Kerr told the Observer.

He said last Friday he ordered eight bags of mixed parts and “two or three bags” of chicken but only got one bag of mixed parts and no whole chicken.

“I haven’t heard any reason [for the shortage] from any of the suppliers. I am here all day, and I have not one pound from morning up to this time to sell. Not one ounce of chicken,” he told the Observer late Monday afternoon.

Kerr also noted that for more than eight weeks he has noticed a shortage of chicken back, the imported cheaper option relied on by many on a tight budget. He said he has heard of no plans to take action to ease the tightness he is seeing in the local market.

“Well over two months I don’t see one case. I don’t get one case of that to sell. The imported back [is] not there. That is gone, and I don’t hear of any importation that is being done or will be done — nothing of the sort,” he said.

In response, Minister Green said he was unaware of challenges sourcing imported chicken back but said if one existed it may have been caused by “shipping challenges out of the US”. He also gave an assurance that, if needed, imports will be used to fill any gaps in the chicken meat market.

But the thought of going that route is causing anxiety among some local players.

In Westmoreland one farm store owner was reluctant to speak on the record about hiccups in the market, fearful it will lead to importation of supply, which will make it even worse for local producers — especially smaller players. He anticipates that supply will be back to normal next month as there is now a surplus of baby chickens.

It was a different story at Ringo’s farm store in Alva, St Ann — which supplies chicks to many farmers in the area — with Roy Cunningham saying there is a shortage of baby birds. He said he usually gets his supply from Hi-Pro but the company has not been able to meet his demand over the past few months.

“I usually order like 4,000 [chicks] and I haven’t been getting that amount. Sometimes they will give me like 2,500 or a little closer to the amount I order; but not the full amount,” Cunningham told the Observer.

“I think the reason I’m even able to get that much is because I do big orders of chicken feed from them, so they try to give me the preference,” he added.

According to the agriculture minister, efforts are under way to address challenges relating to baby chickens.

“We have been distributing baby chicks over the past three weeks, already distributing 57,000 chicken, and have started the distribution of pullets (layers) last week. The broiler companies have also been doing their own distribution of chicken. We have started the rapid assessment, [the] process will be completed this week then we assess next steps,” Green told the Observer.

But consumers are already finding it hard to get chicken on their dinner tables. In downtown Kingston last Saturday there was no whole chicken at several wholesales with some sellers ‘marrying’ one single chicken to the purchase of another type of meat.

On Montego Bay’s St James Street, the proprietor for a meat shop said the shortage of chicken meat has been impacting her business for the last few weeks.

“We got one bag today and we’ll just sell until it is finished,” she said Monday.

Like other meat shops in the western city contacted by the Observer, her approach was to limit each customer to two pounds of chicken each so her limited supply can reach more of her clients. She said she is also encouraging them to buy other meat during this time.

One of her customers, who like the shop owner opted not to provide her name, said she was unable to purchase mixed chicken parts on Saturday; she was told they had run out.

She was grateful she was able to get two pounds on Monday, even though she wanted more.

“It has been rough because this is what most people buy, but it short from when,” the woman related.

Meanwhile, the manager of one restaurant in the heart of Montego Bay said they have also noticed the shortage.

“Usually when we go to the large meat place we would be able to order our seven and eight bags. Now, it’s only one we getting. Other restaurants might get two, depending on the level of business,” the woman told the Observer. She asked not to be identified by name.

She said the restaurant has been able to manage so far because they had chicken in storage. But now they are getting anxious.

“Not certain how long this will last, so we don’t want to run out,” she said.