Chicken, it's what's for dinner and lunch, and, for that matter, breakfast even of only in the form of an egg. Sure enough, the Poultry Industry feeds more Belizeans than anyone else. For proof of that, just look to the numbers: last year the Belize Poultry Association produced 8 million chickens, 25,100 turkeys and 34 million eggs and the Belizean people consumed all of it. And today those responsible for rearing the millions of chickens, gathered at the Biltmore for their 9th annual general meeting to look at the year past and to make plans for the new year. General Manager of the Belize Poultry Association, Orlando Habet tells us what's on their plate.
Orlando Habet, General Manager
"What we've been doing here is trying to see if we can get all our farmers together to inform them of what has happened within the past year and to enlighten them a little bit about some of the events that are pertinent to the industry, not only domestically but also internationally. This meeting is very important because the membership needs to be informed about what is going with their industry, they pay their dues and I think that's one reason why they need to be informed and they need to know what's happening. The industry for us is extremely important. It is such that it is a very high risk production system and one link on that chain, if it doesn't function properly, can cause disaster for the rest of the industry."
Alfonso Noble,
Next month March new taxes will be implemented, in fact the Environmental Tax will be implemented and there have been concerns raised from your sector saying that if environmental taxes are increased on your production it will mean an automatic increase to the consumer.
Orlando Habet,
"The implementation of the taxes will surely some type of impact. The Association hasn't really got down to the nitty gritty of it, trying to finalize all the details on what impact it will have, however on just a brief basis on which they have considered it when you take it on a per pound basis it doesn't impact necessarily; on a per pound basis for the sale of the product. The industry sells wholesale and most of the time the increases occur on the retail. The Association and the producers and processors are in the process of trying to acquire the services of a consultant to review the cost of production so that we can really nail down the real cost of production so then we can see what impact the taxes would have."
Habet says the Poultry Association is presently in the process of determining the cost of production and the impact that new taxes will have on the price of poultry and its products. He however adds that whatever increase is made to the current price it would be minimal and still it would be comparatively cheaper that other meat produce like pork and beef.
7NEWS produced for broadcast by News Director Jules Vasquez
Edited for the internet by Keith Swift
