Richard Lord

With­in six months con­sumers can ex­pect "sta­ble and fair" chick­en prices in T&T, ac­cord­ing to new­ly-ap­point­ed chair­man of the Poul­try In­dus­try Stand­ing Com­mit­tee, Wendy Lee Yuen.She was pre­sent­ed with her in­stru­ment of ap­point­ment by Le­gal Af­fairs Min­is­ter Prakash Ra­mad­har at Reg­is­tra­tion House, South Quay, Port-of-Spain, yes­ter­day.Ra­mad­har said the first ob­jec­tive of the com­mit­tee was one of fact-find­ing to en­sure the in­dus­try and the con­sumer were treat­ed fair­ly.He said the Gov­ern­ment was seek­ing a "win-win" sit­u­a­tion for the in­dus­try and con­sumers. He added there was need for food se­cu­ri­ty in T&T."So we are in­ter­est­ed in food se­cu­ri­ty and of course the best prices for our peo­ple," he added.Ra­mad­har said the com­mit­tee com­prised all the stake­hold­ers in the poul­try in­dus­try.

Lee Yuen said the min­is­ter's ob­jec­tives could be met by her com­mit­tee. She said, based on in­for­ma­tion avail­able, "our ul­ti­mate goal is to sta­bilise prices" and mea­sures had al­ready been short­list­ed to en­sure that was achieved."Ul­ti­mate­ly we will like to have fair, sta­ble prices for the con­sumer, while at the same time en­sur­ing the high­est pos­si­ble qual­i­ty and in­ter­na­tion­al health stan­dard," she added.Lee Yuen said a min­i­mum of six months is re­quired for an in­ter­im re­port to be com­plet­ed."We would be see­ing some im­pact on the do­mes­tic mar­ket with­in that six-month pe­ri­od," she said.

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Oth­er mem­bers of the com­mit­tee are:

Desmond Ali - Caribbean Poul­try As­so­ci­a­tion;

Carl Khan - Live­stock and Live­stock Prod­ucts Board;

Robin Phillips - pres­i­dent, Poul­try As­so­ci­a­tion of T&T;

Suren Ramkissoon - poul­try farmer, farm­ers' rep­re­sen­ta­tive;

Ge­of­frey Ros­tant - Mas­ter­mix Feeds;

Suresh Ben­ny - Sug­ar­cane Feed Cen­tre;

Kaz­im Khan - pres­i­dent, Ta­ble Egg Pro­duc­ers As­so­ci­a­tion of T&T;

Rasheed Karin - pres­i­dent, Cen­tral Pluck Shop-own­ers As­so­ci­a­tion;

Mutchin­son Melville - Min­istry of Health;

Joan Lewis - Min­istry of Food Pro­duc­tion;

Shan­na Rame­sar - Min­istry of Trade;

Krys­tal Ram­rat­tan - Min­istry of Trade;

Cindy Anne Baz­zard - Min­istry of Fi­nance; and,

Kim­ber­ly Roberts - Min­istry of Fi­nance.