As more people are staying at home during the COVID-19 pandemic, the demand for locally produced chicken has significantly increased.
This is the contention of president of the Poultry Association of T&T Robin Phillips. In in interview with the Business Guardian Phillips said: “Local production is responsible for about 80 per cent and 20 per cent is imported. Currently all producers have been trying to fill the gap shortfall by imported chicken.”
In spite of this demand for more chicken, it has not been reflected by the demand for chicken at restaurants.
Business Guardian reached out to CEO of Prestige Holdings (KFC, Subway, TGI Fridays, Starbucks) Simon Hardy, who confirmed that demand has been affected by the impact of the pandemic.
Hardy said, “Obviously with COVID and the economic impact, there has been some negative effect in terms of demand.” He added as people are being paid less, some have lost jobs, so people have less discretionary income and are not eating out as they usually would.
However, the Prestige Holdings CEO noted that supply chicken for the company’s restaurants has been consistent.
He said, “For supply, we have no issues, we’ve developed a very strong working relationship with Arawak, who is our supplier of chicken.”
However, this comes as many depot owners have complained about a shortage in supply of chicken. At least ten of these depot owners in various parts of the country have indicated that the are not getting enough chicken to meet their daily/weekly quota and that the size of the chicken received has also decreased.
Nigel Astor, of Pro Processors Farms Ltd on O’Meara Road, Arima, said he has witnessed a shortage in the market. He said: “My normal quota supposed to 1,400-2,000 chickens per day, right now I am getting between 500-700 per day.”
Many other depots in central and in the western parts of Trinidad have confirmed the same.
Additionally, one depot owner who wished to remain unnamed said that where he would usually choose the size of chicken he wanted, he know has take what is given.
He added that on weekends his depots would require five pound chickens. He said, however, now “you have to take the biggest they have and the biggest they have is about 3 and 1/2 lb and maybe a four lb.”
In spite of this, Phillips, who is also the marketing manager for Arawak, noted that the company has ramped up production.
He revealed: “Arawak normally produces somewhere between 350,000 to 370,000 chickens a week, currently we are over 400,000. From our perspective there isn’t a shortage, we are supplying more than we were supplying during the pre-COVID period.”
Nevertheless, owner of Island Chicken and president of the T&T Pluck Shop Association Imam Rasheed Karim has argued that there is no shortage in chicken, but rather a decrease in the usual size of the chicken coupled with increased demand.
He added, “The schools are out and due to that, the demand is greater.” He added that as more children are home, they are eating more than they usually would.
According to Karim, when these children are home for an extra six hours per day, and there is extra demand, producers now have to take chickens that are two weeks younger than their usual maturation at sale, which accounts for the smaller size. With smaller pieces of meat, Karim underscored that more chicken has to be bought, thus accounting for the demand.
Phillips confirmed that this was the case at Arawak, but he noted that the increased demand would have been brought on by a shortage in imported chicken, which requires the company to reach into their future supply of chicken to cater to the market needs.
As a result off the shortage in imports, Phillips noted that the only way local producers can fill the gap created by the shortfall “is by picking up our chickens a little younger and hence the smaller size.”
Nonetheless, Phillips said that if you go into certain supermarkets, “they have all the chicken that they require.”
President of the Supermarket Association of T&T Rajiv Diptee confirmed there have been “no complaints” with regard to frozen meats in the supermarkets.
Meanwhile, Phillips noted that there has been some disruption in the supply chain cycle of chicken in the country. He explained that during the first stay-at-home period where restaurants were shut down, two things happened, importers cut their supply and imports were reduced( 75 per cent in May and 50 per cent in June).
Additionally, since there was a complete lockdown, Phillips noted that local producers found themselves with no place to sell their chicken and as a result had to cut their production numbers.
He said “So where we are now is that we are in the catch up mode, we’re almost out of it, hence, we need about a million heads of chicken a week to satisfy the local market, local production plus imports.”
Phillips asserted that “there is a little time delay in the supply chain, and all the local producers have also ramped up, but the cycle is a 12-week cycle, so if we started to ramp up after the reopening of the economy in early July, you find that we are almost out of that 12 week, we are now coming to the end of that 12-week cycle.”
In two to three weeks, Phillips explained that the situation would be right back to normal. He also noted another theory, which explains for the increased demand in chicken.
Phillips said that some have alluded to the fact that fishermen are unable to practice their trade as much as they would like, this has led to an increased demand for chicken.
Nonetheless he expects demand to decrease in the coming weeks as Hindus are expected to begin fasting as Divali approaches.