Clarke (left) and PottingerWESTERN BUREAU:
GOVERNMENT'S ANNOUNCEMENT of a 260 per cent hike in duties for imported chicken has met with widespread approval from the local farming community.
The new duty regime, which takes effect next week, exempts chicken necks and backs, but includes carrots, lettuce, cabbage and tomatoes.
According to Jamaica Agricultural Society (JAS) president, Bobby Pottinger, the Minister is acting in the national interest while maintaining that the low prices for dumped chicken and vegetables have deterred traders from purchasing local products.
"The playing field is not level, we are already buying inputs for the poultry industry, eggs, wires, medicine and feeds, from overseas. Agriculture Minister Roger Clarke made the announcement of the new tariff at a workshop organised by the Caribbean Poultry Association Tunnel Ventilation School at the Courtleigh Hotel in Kingston. However, he made it clear that the high duties would not continue indefinitely.
"The increased duties will be inclusive of 100 per cent Common External Tariff and 80 per cent additional stamp duty", the Minister told poultry interests.
Chicken parts at present attract an 86 per cent duty, while that for vegetables is almost 40 per cent. Jamaican chicken processors have for years been complaining that imports were negatively impacting on their operations.
The island's largest single processor of chicken meat, Jamaica Broilers, in July 2000 complained that the company had noticed a decline in both the sale of chicken meat and baby chicks because of the importation of leg quarters. Small farmers, the company said then, were cautious about the purchase of the baby chicks because the importation of leg quarters made it difficult to sell their produce once the birds are grown.
Jamaica last year produced 85,828.2 tonnes of chicken meat, up 11.3 per cent over the previous year.
