The Tribune

By YOURI KEMP

Tribune Business Reporter

ykemp@tribunemedia.net

A Bahamian chicken farmer says his request for a Crown Land lease requires an urgent government response if his $310,000 investment is to work.

Glen Rolle, chief executive of Bouggie Birds, told Tribune Business: “We have all of the financing in place, but we just can’t seem to get the land. We are not asking for much. We want it in the Cowpen Road area.

“That is the area we have targeted. The old Rainbow Farms, we were looking at that, and we have been checking with some folks at the Lands and Surveys Department wanting to know if it was a government grant or a lease, and we can’t get any answers from them.

“They already have the land space. It’s already enclosed so that is a big jump for us, but if we can’t get that we are just looking at some land space here in Nassau. We really want it to be up and running by November, and we just can’t get any answers.”

Mr Rolle is seeking around three acres of land, but says he will settle for two. “The thing is they would give you any amount of land in the Family Islands, but the downside to the Family Islands is that all of the market is here in New Providence,” he added.

“So let’s say you are producing in Andros. You have to ship the feed and everything to Andros, then it’s like a double shipment because you have to ship the eggs right back to Nassau. We wanted to start something right here and then, in future, if they want to send us to Andros and take it to a bigger level then we’ll do that.

“We have the capacity now to do about 5,000 birds and, in the second year, we’ll do about 10,000. The old Rainbow Farms; at one point they had about 120,000 birds out there, but we want to do more of the organic, cage-free birds and that’s what we’re shooting for.”

Mr Rolle said he was tired of The Bahamas importing low-quality eggs from the US, arguing that many are 16 weeks’ old as opposed to being fresh. “I’m doing chickens now and it’s pretty much just for local customers and my family consumption,” he added.

“I have about 80 birds now and I know it is small-scale, but it is enough to produce for my family, friends and some small local customers. It is 100 percent organic, but I wanted to take it to the next level.”

“We have about $310,000 right now any we don’t need any funds from the government. We just want the land. Of course, you are going to need some technical support in terms of escalating the build-out, the work approval and the waiving of certain duties to bring in equipment and things like that in terms of starting up, but we don’t need any seed money from the government.”

Mr Rolle continued: “We talk farming a lot in The Bahamas, and I look around now. Most of these lands, these guys are not serious about farming. They put two banana trees on their farms, and for years they are not doing anything with it. I’m not saying to take the people’s land, but if you are not doing anything with it and people who have the wherewithal to do some stuff, let them move ahead.

“They need to get serious about farming, and it is only now because of this crisis that we are facing that everybody is talking about farming, but the minute we are done with this it is going to be business as usual.

“I have enough now for me and we have not been to the food store to buy eggs in almost three years. We need to start producing locally and stop this talk about what you’re going to do for the farmers. I don’t want the government’s money; we just want a chance to have a piece of land to farm.”