Bahamas News

The housewife in The Bahamas is noticing that the price of eggs is increasing. US eggs, which are being imported and promoted as a specialty product, will cost more with each shipment. Bahamian eggs from local producers are holding steady at the moment because they fall under the price control mechanism.

On January 15, the price of carton of eggs at the wholesale rate was a $1.17 dozen. Ten days later, the price jumped to $1.32.When freight, duty (17%) and other handling charges are added, the price landed in The Bahamas is $51.69 per case (30 dozen). The control price, on the other hand, is $42.30, a differential of $9.39, almost $10 more. This past weekend some supermarkets were experiencing egg shortages, particularly those outlets which use US eggs to supplement the domestic supply. The price of US eggs had jumped to $63.00 per case, putting them at $21.00 above the control price.

The poultry industry has been hit by high feed costs. The reason for these high feeds is the competition between the poultry agribusiness and burgeoning ethanol industry for corn. Generally corn prices are around $2 plus per bushel; however, the ethanol industry is prepared to pay as much as $6 per bushel and still remain competitive.

Livestock which depend on corn as a feed ingredient will face escalating feed costs. Bahamians will experience a barrage of food price increases for poultry meat, pork chops, spare ribs, hamburgers, ham and steak. There is virtually no commercial livestock activity in the country; The Bahamas is totally dependent on imported meats and that makes us extremely vulnerable to the vagaries of the American supply chain on which we are dependent. 90% of our food is imported from the US.

Bahamians are already complaining about high food prices. This is the situation which eggs project and highlight our dilemma as a food deficit country. The table egg is the only commodity in which The Bahamas enjoys at a comfortable level of food security and a high degree of self-sufficiency. For months now, food importers have been undermining this agribusiness by importing a product which they have promoted as a specialty item, thereby taking market share from local producers and destabilizing their operations. With the high US prices, local food wholesalers and retailers are scurrying around and pressuring growers to supply them with product.

It will be interesting to know whether the Departments of Consumer Affairs and Agriculture respectively are monitoring these market conditions.

Sunshine Farms, Grand Bahama, the egg unit, is the sister company of Bahamas Poultry which specializes in broiler meat. In all of CARICOM, Sunshine Farms is the most mechanized egg operation and the processing equipment displayed is the most sophisticated in the hemisphere. After the last hurricane some three million dollars were invested in both Sunshine Farms and Bahamas Poultry in upgrading production and processing equipment.

Courtesy of the Bahama Journal