$3.50-$3.99 acceptable for chicken

Wielding the carrot and the stick, Government yesterday announced a further reduction in the price of chicken, but stressed that it would continue to protect local producers by leaving the 88 percent surcharge.

Minister of Legal Affairs Camille Robinson-Regis announced that Cabinet yesterday agreed that the price range of $3.50 to $3.99 for locally produced chicken was “acceptable.” The Cabinet also agreed that “the proposal for the suspension of the 88 percent import surcharge should not be considered at this time.”  The minister was addressing a post-Cabinet news conference at Whitehall. The Minister stressed that the Consumer Affairs Minister would continue to monitor chicken prices on a weekly basis. And, she added, the local chicken producers had given the undertaking that prices would not be changed without first informing the Ministry of Legal Affairs. She also revealed that the Legal Affairs Ministry would be speaking with officers in the Ministry of Health about the operations at the pluck shops. Robinson-Regis said her ministry had been beseiged with complaints about the sanitation of the pluck shops and the fact that there tended to be no display of the cost involved in plucking and gutting chickens. She said within the next three months, the Ministry would be meeting all the stakeholders on a monthly basis.