NASSAU, BAHAMAS — A well-known Abaco-based poultry producer said yesterday that despite supply challenges and rising costs it is seeing strong demand for its product.
Lance Pinder, Abaco Big Bird’s operations manager, told Eyewitness News: “We’re running out of chicken every week.”
He explained that rising costs, logistical issues as well as the bird flu in the United States have all posed challenges for the poultry producer but “so far we’re hanging in there”.
“It’s challenging because of all the cost increases,” Pinder said.
“One has to wonder at what point is the consumer going to say they can’t take any more. So far we are hanging in there. We are having trouble finding supplies. There are a lot of egg shortages and broiler bird shortages. The cost of broiler birds have more than doubled. They’re very hard to get and we can’t always get as many as we want. That’s a challenge we are having right now.”
Pinder continued: “The hatchery we normally deal with told us that it may be next year January when we can get birds again. Luckily our feed supplier also has hatcheries and they were able to source some for us or we would be completely out of commission.”
Pinder noted that there is high demand for poultry products.
“There is definitely a lot of demand,” he said.
“We’re running out of chicken every week. It’s a good and a bad thing. US poultry prices have gone up some 65 percent in the last year. We’ve managed to keep our prices reasonable but it’s challenging.”
According to Pinder, Abaco Big Bird is operating at about one-fifth of its pre-Dorian capacity.
“Luckily the tourism sector is rebounding. We are packaging about 5,000 birds a week and they sell out very fast,” he said.
“We’ve never seen anything quite like this. I believe that when things were good we should have invested more in our agriculture sector and now we’re paying the price. To make that investment in hard times is going to cost us a whole lot more. We’ve had quite a few discussions with the government so we’ll see what happens.”