BAS CEO James Paul: Pork and poultry aplenty

There will be chicken and pork aplenty this Christmas says Chief Executive Officer of the Barbados Agricultural Society James Paul.
He gave The Barbados Advocate the assurance that local pork and poultry farmers have more than enough of these popular meats to grace every Barbadian table during the upcoming holiday season.

In an interview yesterday, he outlined that the farmers had been planning for Christmas months in advance to ensure there would be no lack of supply to meet the demands of the public.

“Farmers have made sure that Barbadians will not lack when it comes in the area of poultry and pork certainly is in abundance,” he stated.
A firm advocate of buying local first, Paul therefore pleaded with wholesalers and retailers not to seek to flood the market with imported pork.
“I do not understand why it is that people think they have to import pork. I think we have enough farmers in this island that are into pork. Even now, there are some provisions we have to make for some new farmers who have come on and they have pork for the New Year already on hand,” he added.

With regards to vegetables, Paul admitted that throughout the year, challenges had been experienced with growing tomatoes and sweet peppers, and revealed a close eye was being paid to the recent rains the island has been experiencing.

“In general, I do not think we would get any problems even though we are seeing these recent rains in December and we don’t know what type of impact this will have in terms of harvesting vegetables, but I really do not think we will have any major problems and consumers would be able to access most local vegetables easily,” he stressed, adding, “So I think generally Barbados will have no problems with accessing these products for Christmas this year.”