The Tribune

By NATARIO McKENZIE

Tribune Business Reporter

nmckenzie@tribunemedia.net

EGG producers said yesterday’s Government’s decision to increase the tariff rates on imports to 30 per cent would only raise consumer costs, as not enough were being produced locally to meet demand.

Larry Feingold, owner of Rainbow Farms on Carmichael Road, effectively said the Government’s action was ‘too little, too late’ to save a Bahamian egg producing industry.

He added that local egg producers had essentially been wiped out over the past eight years due to a two-tier price control system, calling the Government’s announcement “too late”.

“It’s too late,” he told Tribune Business. “There is hardly any production in the country at the moment. I’m 100 per cent out of production. I sold all of my chickens off because I was losing quite a bit of money. I was losing about $6 on every case that I sold.”

During his Mid-Year Budget statement delivered in Parliament yesterday, Prime Minister Perry Christie said the Customs duty on imported eggs was being increased to 30 per cent to address the “competitiveness of domestic producers”.

But Mr Feingold responded: “The problems started about eight years ago when there was a two-tier system of price control.

“The producers are locked into their price, which at the time was $51.15 cents a case. If you imported eggs, whatever your landed costs was you could mark it up 10 per cent. The retailers couldn’t give the same mark up to the local eggs,” he explained.

“It’s simple arithmetic. If you pay $51 for eggs and you mark it up 10 per cent, you make a gross profit of $5.10 cents. If you go to the US and you pay more for the eggs, which they were doing, you land it at $60.

“You are allowed to mark it up 10 per cent, so your gross profit was $6 as compared to a gross profit of $5 on local eggs. The incentive was for the importers to bring in foreign eggs because their gross profit was more, even if the consumers had to pay more.”

Mr Feingold said: “We had to cut back on our production because the retailers and wholesalers were bringing in the foreign eggs. It didn’t make any difference what our prices were; if they could make more on the foreign eggs they were doing it.

“We got no relief for eight years. Six months ago I said enough is enough, and I sold off all my chickens. Increasing the duty at this time, I think, will hurt because there are not enough local eggs in the market and people will have to pay more for the foreign eggs.”

Mr Feingold added that the only other major egg producer in the country, Shoreside Farms in Freeport, was facing similar challenges.