Across the world, poultry producers are struggling to source quality feed for their birds at a price that allows their businesses to remain economically sustainable.
However, for those in the South American state of Suriname, there is an additional challenge. The agriculture ministry has banned the importation of hatching eggs from the Netherlands, reports Loop News.
Explaining the current ban on this trade, the republic’s agriculture ministry says that there have been outbreaks of highly pathogenic avian influenza (HPAI) in some Dutch poultry flocks.
However, Suriname’s poultry farmers state that there have been HPAI outbreaks in at least 10 U.S. states, and yet imports from the country are not affected by a ban. As a consequence, the source reports, a lawsuit has been filed against the ministry.
Feed shortages reported
Supplies of feed and feed ingredients are always in short supply in the country, according to the nation’s poultry association.
According to the Cooperative Association of Poultry Farmers Suriname, large poultry businesses do not appear to be affected by the challenges they face. Such adverse factors, they say, include shortages of labor as a result of the coronavirus (COVID-19) and shipping containers, as well as steeply rising costs of oil and feed ingredients.
Loop News reports that its members who remain in poultry production have welcomed the recent arrival of a shipment of imported soy.
“We hope that the feed manufacturers will then be able to produce in full so that all breeders can again have access to sufficient quality feed at a reasonable fixed price,” they said.
As an important part of the nation’s economy, Suriname’s poultry producers have expressed disappointment by a lack of government support for the survival of the sector. They say that recommendations made by the Presidential Poultry Commission in 2021 are still to be implemented.
More on the Suriname poultry sector
In 2020, the Republic of Suriname produced 4,301 metric tons (mt) of chicken eggs, and 9,687mt of chicken meat. This is according to the statistics arm of the United Nations’ Food and Agriculture Organization, FAOstat, and 2020 is the latest year for which data have been published.
According to OEC World, Suriname exported poultry meat to the value of US$7,680 — all to Barbados - in the same year. Meanwhile, imports amounted to $16.6 million, including $13.9 million from the U.S., and US$2.5 million from Brazil.
