On Friday the Poultry Association announced an increase in the price of chicken by 12 cents per pound. The new prices came into effect today and it’s across the board – everything from chicken breasts – to neck and back. So a pound of chicken that was normally sold for $2.14 a pound – is now $2.28 per pound. The country’s largest poultry producer is Quality Poultry Products and at their flagship store in the city on North Front Street – the manager says they are expecting a slight dip in sales. Pedro Letkeman told us why.
Pedro Letkeman, Manager – Quality Poultry Products
“We just went up this morning so its very hard to tell but the knowledge that people knew the prices would go up I think he has slowed us down a little bit because some people bought more because they knew was going up and then some people are putting the brakes on. So I think it will give maybe a little wrinkle but I think in the long run everybody understands where the chicken prices come from and why they go up and I think every Belizean will weigh everything else that is increasing and so chicken prices also and that is just what is happening right now and I expect everybody will understand that and it won’t have a real effect on our business.
I think pretty much everything has doubled in the last seven years that we use to produce the chicken and yet the chicken prices, I think, if I remember correctly have gone up something like 20% in the last seven years or very little anyways and the profit margin has gone so narrow that we can no longer sustain our business unless we go up in price. It has nothing to do with us wanting to make more money. It has to do with viability to sustain our business. The profit margin has been wiped out because of the increase of costs of producing the chicken and unless we increased the price of the chicken we wouldn’t be able to survive.”
And there may be more bad news ahead because an increase in the price of eggs is expected this week.
