Chicken in abundance: prices reduced
Guyanese consumers were greeted to the good news yesterday morning that the prices for chicken had dropped and there were adequate supplies on the local market. Guyanese on the whole consume a lot of chicken and the decline in prices and the abundant supply of the commodity come in the wake of efforts by the government to cushion the effects of rising food prices and shortages due mainly to a stream of global factors including climate change, global warming and preference to bio-fuels which demand large stocks of grains for its manufacture.

Noteworthy is the fact that the Guyanese public currently consumes an estimated 800,000 pounds of chicken per week or 3.2 million pounds per month.

When the world was first rocked by food shortage and high prices warnings, the Guyana Government spared no efforts and embarked on country-wide activities aimed at relieving the people of hardships as a consequence of soaring world market prices and shortages of some essential consumer items.

The entire Guyanese population was warned about the world changes and advised on handling the situation with their individual efforts. Today, kitchen garden and large scale farmers have returned to the land individually and collectively, and both large and small scale poultry farmers stuck to their task of poultry production, resulting in abundance of chicken meat to satisfy the entire Guyanese population at reduced prices. At the moment this commodity could even be exported, especially to neighbouring CARICOM countries which have also felt the effects of a world order that has brought disaster to many countries. Indeed world experts say that millions of people around the world are starving every day, and warned that the situation could worsen if there are no interventions by some of the more highly industrialised countries.

Unlike other countries in the CARICOM group of nations, we are fortunate in Guyana to be self sufficient in vegetables, ground provision, fruits, rice, sugar, fish, shrimp, pork, mutton, venison, beef and now chicken.

The other food items which must come from external sources are subject to regular government interventions which, among other things have seen the withdrawal of the Value Added Tax on a long list of items.

Another manifestation of the people’s interest at heart was the announcement last week by President Bharrat Jagdeo to further ease the cost of living. The measures include:-

* Subsiding increases on flour
* 5 percent pay hike for government workers, retroactive to January
* $4,000 (additional) tax free for those earning below $50,000 per month
* $20 million in seeds, fertilizers, pesticides to increase food production

The people note with satisfaction that so far for this year the government has spent billions of dollars in measures to help ease the burden on the people.

The Guyana Government has done tremendously in terms of the present crisis facing countries across the globe. This sentiment was even echoed by Inter-American Institute for Cooperation on Agriculture (IICA) Representative assigned to CARICOM, Dr. Vincent Little, when he said on Monday that Guyana’s interventions to address the rise in food prices have been the best in the region

Dr. Little made the observation in his presentation at IICA’s annual accountability seminar in Georgetown when he pointed out that the region’s food crisis is due to a number of complex simultaneous challenges such as globalisation and trade liberalisation, climate change and escalating oil and energy prices.

The Guyanese people are happy over the many interventions made so far by the government to arrest the situation, and see as a direct result, the abundant supply of chicken on the local market and the reduction of prices for the commodity.

The people are heartened by this development and welcome the statement made by Tourism, Industry and Commerce Minister, Mr. Manniram Prashad when he said: “Guyana is not short of chicken, we can produce all the poultry meat that we need in Guyana and even export a little, we are self sufficient in the production of chicken.

“The prices must come down, it’s a case of supply and demand and I expect this to continue for a while because there is an adequate amount of chicken on the market”.

There are clear signs that the Guyana Government is coping extremely well with the situation and things are beginning to get a little better.

The people must therefore accept the stark reality that food shortages and rising prices are not the government’s doing but indeed a world problem; and we must all work together with the administration to bring more relief for our people.