Kingston, Jamaica — The Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Mining is actively taking steps to make sure the steadiness of the nation’s egg provide, amid ongoing challenges going through the sector. Minister of Agriculture, Hon. Floyd Inexperienced, supplied an replace on the ministry’s efforts throughout a post-Cupboard press briefing on Wednesday, February 19.
Inexperienced highlighted that the federal government had distributed roughly 50,000 pullets, or ready-to-lay hens, to the hardest-hit parishes by the top of December 2024. Nevertheless, the nation’s egg manufacturing has been hampered by unfavorable climate patterns that affected the pullets’ productiveness. To alleviate the state of affairs, the ministry has additionally initiated a plan to permit large-scale egg customers, together with the baking and hospitality sectors, to import liquid or powdered eggs, making certain extra complete eggs stay obtainable for native customers.
“We’re not permitting the importation of complete eggs; it must be liquid, it must be powdered and can solely be for the hospitality or baking sectors,” Inexperienced clarified.
The minister additional famous that the business has been working with main gamers like Jamaica Broilers and Caribbean Broilers to supply hatching eggs from different markets akin to Belgium and the Netherlands, given the challenges with egg provides from the US.
Inexperienced identified that, whereas a number of areas of agriculture have recovered, the egg business stays beneath stress, significantly after Hurricane Beryl in 2024 precipitated the lack of over 43,000 laying hens. Projections point out a 26% discount in egg manufacturing for the primary half of 2025, all the way down to 95.4 million eggs from 123 million in 2024. This lower is predicted to contribute to increased egg costs within the quick time period.
Regardless of these challenges, Inexperienced expressed optimism that manufacturing ranges would return to pre-hurricane ranges by July 2025, supplied there aren’t any additional disruptions. The federal government will proceed to distribute pullets as a part of its revitalization efforts to help the restoration of the egg business.
