The Tribune

By NATARIO McKENZIE

Tribune Business Reporter

nmckenzie@tribunemedia.net

An Abaco-based poultry producer yesterday said its production had increased 20-30 per cent, its operations manager telling Tribune Business he was “very encouraged” by the response from many Bahamas-based wholesalers.

“We are definitely seeing some things happening. There is a lot of activity going on. A lot of customers who haven’t bought from us for several years have started buying again, “ Lance Pinder told Tribune Business.

Back in May 2012, Mr Pinder told this newspaper that the family-owned and operated company, which has  been in business since 1995, was two to three months from shutting down, with business having dropped  60 per cent since the Government eliminated the permit regime for chicken imports.

Mr Pinder said: “We are actually very encouraged right now. In the last two weeks we have seen an uptick in sales. We have actually increased our production probably 20-30 per cent right now.

“We were down 60 per cent. We are getting a lot of calls from Freeport, Nassau and other places. If it keeps going like this I think by October or November we can be back up to full capacity of what our facility can produce right now.”

Mr Pinder said Abaco Big Bird had the capacity to produce about two-three million pounds of chicken per year.

“We have about 33 people that work for us, 22 in the processing room and the rest is office staff and ground crew. Those in the processing plant were down to working one week out of a month, so they are really happy because this means they will be back to full-time work in a few months,” he added.

Mr Pinder said the company was monitoring corn prices in the US, which have have spiked roughly 30 per cent due to one of the most severe droughts in the midwest in decades. The increased price of corn affects the price of feed and, ultimately, chicken.

“It’s pretty scary what’s going on the US right now. We haven’t felt the price increase yet, but I think in about a month we might,” Mr Pinder said.

“We will see how high it goes. It’s a little troubling for us because right now we have a lot of government support and we don’t want people to say that the Government is helping, and now we have gone and raised the prices. We are monitoring the situation and we are going to do our best to try and deal with the situation. The more volume we have our cost goes down, so we may be able to mitigate that.”