As the demand for pork rises in Barbados and the Caribbean, the Directors of the Pork Association of the Caribbean are coming together to ensure that regional pig farmers become more efficient in pork production.
“What we want to do in the Association, is to bring all the pork producers in the region together and to hold workshops and seminars to see if we can educate pork producers (to) become more efficient in terms of (their) housing facilities and how to better manage their pigs in terms of good health, nutrition, breeding and genetics, reproduction, and so on”.
In speaking to the Barbados Advocate yesterday, Chairman of the Pork Association of the Caribbean, Ian Leong Poi, acknowledged that the Association was seeking to improve competitiveness in the region.
The Association, he said was also seeking to promote efficient standards and codes of practice amongst pig farmers while developing and advocating Trade Liberalisation and Trade Policies.
“We have to try to get on board as many pork producers in the region as possible” he commented.
According to the Chairman who is also the Director of Erin Farm Ltd. In Trinidad and Tobago there are many small farmers in the region but very few large producers.
Mr Leong Poi stated that the Association currently has planned a programme that it hopes, once funding is there, that will see the facilitation of workshops in Caricom, to bring the region’s farmers together in an effort to make them more competitive.
The Association is seeking to expose all of the pork producers to the current new technology, which is vital if they want to be competitive in the pork industry.
“You have to present a lot of technology into your business. That is where the industry is heading right now. Once you are doing back yard farming it is going to be difficult for you to be competitive on a commercial scale” he stated.
Commenting that there is a bright future for the industry in Barbados and that pork is in demand, he noted that it was the same in Trinidad. The demand outstrips the supply, he said. “Local prices of pork are very high which was caused by the bird flu and the mad cow disease. So people are eating a lot more pork than they did before”.
Noting that presently there are a lot of diseases surfacing all over the world, the Director stated that we in the Caribbean were fortunate since we were not exposed to these diseases that could have drastic economic effects on the industry.
This is mainly due the fact that our pork industry in the Caribbean tends to be very small and not as intense as the United States or Europe where you have a lot of pigs moving from one point to the other. When pigs move he said, diseases are transmitted much easier.
“So that is one plus we have in our favour. In terms of trade it is a leverage that we are basically free of major diseases,” Mr. Leong Poi added.
