Enough poultry in TT for Christmas

They also indicated that it was premature to anticipate price hikes in poultry prices because of the poultry ban imposed by Gov-ernment to guard against the outbreak of bird flu.

Nutrimix vice-president Ronnie Moham-med said the company had placed orders for chicken imports long before Health Minister John Rahael’s annou-ncement on Thursday of temporary restrictions on imports of poultry products and by products. Moha-mmed said Nutrimix has sufficient chicken stocks for the Christmas season, and does not anticipate an increase in chicken prices in the near future. He also indicated that Nutrimix will continue to import chicken eggs as this commodity is not included in the restrictions imposed by the Government. Moha-mmed added that there are specific processes to screen the eggs before they enter this country in order to ensure that they are free of disease.

On Thursday, Arawak marketing director Robin Phillips said he did not foresee chicken shortages or increase in chicken prices as a result of the ban. Phillips said Arawak currently had enough chicken stocks.

Officials at Erin Farms said the company had enough chicken and turkey stocks for the Christmas. Fine Choice Meats officials indicated that they also had enough chicken in stock for Christmas. However, they said they had no turkeys in stock at this time.

All of Fine Choice’s turkeys are reared locally.