The Jamaica Broilers Group has advised that Jamaica`s livestock feed industry is being adversely affected by the recent spate of tropical storms and hurricanes which have been affecting the Caribbean and U.S. East and Gulf Coast states. Grain supplies for Jamaica are shipped from the East and GulfCoast states and the adverse weather conditions over the past three weeks have resulted in the rerouting of vessels, as well as delays in the delivery of grain shipments.
Christopher Levy, Senior Vice President for Operations at Jamaica Broilers Group – the country’s largest producer of both poultry and feed supplies – today pointed out that the three storms which have passed through the Mississippi area where the loading of grain destined for the Group takes place “have resulted in serious delays in loading of regular shipment to Group.”
He explained that with the help of Cargill, the Group’s grain suppliers, the company has been able to divert a shipment of corn to South America, where some 5,000 tons of corn have been offloaded. “This was a move we felt was necessary to maintain normalcy in the feed sector and to avoid run-out situations; however, it was achieved at a significantly increased cost over our regular shipment”, he said.
The Jamaica Broilers Group executive added that every effort was also being made to bring in other ingredients that are used in the formulation of feed, in order to avoid having to change the formulas for feed which have been providing very satisfactory returns to famers.
While we are aware that the extraordinary measures we have had to be taking will temporarily drive up cost, we believe this necessary to prevent a run-out of stocks. Any such shortage of feed for the livestock sector could prove disastrous, as thousands of animals could die – leading to major losses to livestock farmers, as well as to local food shortages”, Mr. Levy added.
