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Minister Industry, International Business, Commerce and Small Business Development, Donville Inniss addressing constituents on Sunday evening.

No ban to be put on chicken wings, poultry products

There will be no ban put on the importation of chicken wings or poultry products into this country.

So says Donville Inniss, whose ministry is responsible for issuing such importation licences. The Industry, International Business, Commerce and Small Business Development Minister made his position known during a meeting of his St. James South constituency on Sunday evening at the branch office, as he reflected on repeated calls in recent times for such a ban to be imposed, as it was suggested that imports were hurting the local sector.
 
“Let me make it clear to the BAS [Barbados Agricultural Society] and all of them, under my watch there will be no banning of the importation of chicken wings and poultry products. Barbadians must have an option. They need to sit among themselves and determine what they can do to reduce the cost; they need to look at their feed prices; they need to look at a more cooperative spirit in the production of their products and such like. But I am not accepting any recommendation for the banning of items into Barbados, I’m not supporting that,” the minister insisted.
 
Inniss further told those attending the meeting that only entity that his Ministry has granted a licence to import chicken wings has been the Barbados Agricultural Development and Marketing Corporation (BADMC), and not only has there been no increase in the importation of poultry products, but there is no evidence to suggest that the importation of poultry is responsible for any perceived harm on the domestic poultry industry. This lack of evidence, he said, was discussed at a meeting of BAS, BADMC, the Ministry of Commerce and other stakeholders several weeks ago.
 
“We tracked the volume of imports of poultry products into Barbados and I can tell you, as I have said to James Paul and others, there has been no increase in the importation of products… What is the issue really is that the poultry producers in Barbados or their representative body cannot up to now tell the Ministry of Commerce what are their levels of production. I asked the question ‘Can you tell how many small backyard chicken farmers there are in Barbados today and what they’re producing?’  If they are not in your system then that may be part of the reasons why you may have supposedly a little glut,” he stated.
 
While addressing the hot topic of poultry imports, he also chided the private sector in this country for still being too dependent on Government and contended that the private sector “really needs to be privatised”. He made the point while lamenting that there is too much clamouring and calls from various facets of the private sector for Government to protect them and give incentives.
 
“…It is as though without the Government as a customer, our private sector could not survive. And as I look down the future for Barbados, I want to see a private sector that is a lot more enterprising than we currently have; a private sector that has the ability to do analysis and to take risks and to stand more on their own… Instead, what we have is more and more calling for Government protection and Government banning this and banning that,” he said.(JRT)

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