The Tribune

By YOURI KEMP

Tribune Business Reporter

A major Abaco poultry producer yesterday urged the government to grant it ownership of its property so that this can be used as security to obtain Dorian reconstruction financing.

Lance Pinder, Abaco Big Bird Poultry’s chief executive, told Tribune Business: “We need our land. The government does not have a lot of resources to jump-start anything. But granting us the land would not cost them anything, and it could help us access financing and restart our operations.”

He explained that the farm’s 21-year lease ended three years ago, and ever since it has been trying to persuade the government to convey the property to it with little success.

Mr Pinder said he believes the government should grant Abaco Big Bird its land given that it has pumped millions of dollars into its development, arguing that it is “the least the government could do” in order to compensate them for Dorian losses.

“It would be good to have our land, and also that duty0free process for concessions for farmers could be a lot better than four weeks to get a response from the Ministry of Agriculture,” he added.

Mr Pinder previously said Customs’ administrative delays in processing duty exemption requests often holds the business back, saying: “I can’t process the rest of the Customs paperwork until I get that approval for the duty-free goods back from the government. As a result, I don’t have the figures to put into the VAT filing paperwork. Then I run into problems with the Inland Revenue Department for not filing my paperwork on time.”

Turning to the Inter-American Development Bank’s (IDB) assessment that the poultry industry in Abaco suffered $1.5m in damages, Mr Pinder said “just the poultry part of the farm is $1.5m; the damages to the whole farm would be over $2m.

“With the avocados and limes there is no crop insurance. It would be two years before we get any income out of the avocados, and we are talking about four years for the limes. We have to factor in labour, up-keep, irrigation and weed control before we estimate what has to be done in between, plus the cost of replanting.”

Mr Pinder reiterated: “Land ownership is the key to open financing, and there needs to be faster turnaround for the duty-free concessions. We are still trying to come up with a solid business plan. We need to factor in labour, which is one of the most difficult things for us right now because no one has anywhere to live. So we really don’t know how to estimate how to move forward as a result, but acquiring the land is also a big part of our business plan going forward.”

Mr Pinder said he would like Michael Pintard, minister of agriculture, to visit Abaco Big Bird to see what the farm is up against and talk face-to-face.