Tuesday, July 15 2008

click on pic to zoom in

UNDER MY UMBRELLA: These women huddled under their umbrellas yesterday as grey storm clouds threatened a downpour at any moment. ...

CONSUMERS should prepare for an increase in the price of chicken over the next couple of weeks.

This comes as Nutrimix’s “sale” on chickens is over and according to the company’s vice president Ronnie Mohammed the price the bird at their farms went back to the “regular” price of $3.50 per pound, a week ago.

Nutrimix has, over the last couple of months, been selling its chicken at a low $2.49 per pound due to a glut (oversupply) in the local market.

But yesterday, Mohammed confirmed that its birds were up to $3.50 per pound, but said it was “still below production costs.”

He said, however, that the price of chicken will go to $5.99 per pound — the price chickens stood at in January before the excess of chickens on the market which came about because of a decrease in consumption and oversupply in production.

According to Mohammed the market had now corrected itself. He also said Nutrimix will continue to import 70,000 chickens from the United States on a weekly basis to ensure that the supply of chicken remained stable in TT, but could not say whether prices will stay at $3.50 per pound.

President of the Central Pluckshop Association Imam Rashid Karim admitted yesterday the price of chicken was “climbing back up.” He said when the cost of transport was added, the cost of chicken at the pluck shops stood at $3.80 per pound and, based on his experience in the poultry business, he was almost certain the price would increase by some 50 cents each week until it hit $5.99 again.

He said when the price of chicken got to $5.99, it will cost over $6 per pound at the pluck shops.

Karim said some pluck shops were misleading the public with their prices, adding that some shop owners were advertising their birds at a low $1.99 per pound, but charging “exorbitant prices for the plucking and gutting so that the consumer ended up paying more money in the end.”

He is calling for some form of regulation within the poultry industry to ensure that costs remain fair and stable.