Poultry farmers to petition against duty cuts on chicken
Published:Friday | July 15, 2011 | 12:00 AM
Jamaican poultry farmers said Thursday that they would be drafting a petition aimed at pressuring the Ministry of Agriculture to close ranks with them against a proposal that will ease taxes on chicken imports.
The lobby against poultry imports is longstanding, and normally led by producers, but this time three groups of farmers are fighting plans to cut the duty on chicken from 100 per cent to 20 per cent, as proposed by the Ministry of Finance in a reform of the Common External Tariff structure under a broader overhaul of the tax system aimed at simplifying it.
A release from the farmers' groups said their operations each represent average investment of J$250 million and that together their outfits have invested billions in the Jamaican economy.
"Additionally, the exposure to lending institutions for farm operations alone now stands well in excess of J$10 billion, in addition to major loss that could be incurred by other major stakeholders," said the combined press release from the National Poultry Growers Co-operative, Middlesex Broiler Growers Association and the Association of Jamaica Broilers Growers.
The groups said "scores of contract poultry farmers" voted unanimously at a recent meeting to draft the petition, saying it would be devastating to their businesses.
The farmers said the demise of the dairy industry should serve as a lesson to the poultry sector that floods of imports could end up wiping out the domestic operations.
The farmers' petition to the Ministry of Agriculture & Fisheries is to be accompanied by signatures of the poultry producers, who, too expect the impact on their processing operations to be "negative and far-reaching", potentially displacing thousands of workers employed in the commercial poultry rearing, haulage business and processing aspects of the industry, the release said.