Joel Julien
Rising food prices have been affecting consumers for some time now.
But this Christmas there may be some reprieve for those who eat goat and sheep.
And if all goes well this gift may extend even beyond the Christmas season.
President of the T&T Goat and Sheep Society Ravi Rennie yesterday told Guardian Media that the non-governmental organisation is aiming to cut out the middleman and provide local meat to consumers. This move will also put a spoke in the wheel of the influx of smuggled livestock with diseases entering the country from the South American mainland.
Consumers, according to Rennie, will be able to buy meat for around 30 per cent less than they currently pay for it. The meat is expected to be sold for $35 a pound for sheep and $38 a pound for goat. The market price of sheep and goat meat currently costs close to $50 a pound Rennie said.
"One of the things that we are looking at is that we have quality product in terms of the animals that we produce, and we want to get that directly to the consumers, so we have partnered with the Sugan Cane Feed Centre that is a government-run abattoir located at Pokhor Road in Cunupia," Rennie said.
The reason the Sugar Cane Feed Centre is being utilised is that it provides an option to ensure animals are healthy before they are slaughtered, and their meat put for sale.
"The Sugar Cane Feed Centre is a government-run and Ministry of Health certified, so you know that what you are getting there is a quality product because even if we bring an animal there to be slaughtered they would keep the animal in quarantine before they slaughter them if they notice any potential diseases," he said.
The reason the quarantine and ministry of health protocols are included Rennie said is that the influx of livestock being smuggled into the country from the mainland.
In 2018 then Agriculture minister Clarence Rambharat said the country was working to stop an influx of illegal animals from Venezuela.
“It is well known that the Ministry has been involved in intercepting a wide range of things, including over 600 kilogrammes of meat last year,” Rambharat said, adding that officials have also intercepted the illegal importation of wild animals being brought in on pirogues.
Guardian Media contacted Agriculture Minister Kazim Hosein to get the recent figures but calls and messages to his phone went unanswered.
Rennie, however, said the farmers were getting reports of an influx of smuggled livestock entering the country.
"Crowning on top of that the smuggling of the animals that is threatening our industry right now, it is threatening it from a health perspective mainly because there are diseases that are endemic to the mainland that are not reported here in T&T," he said.
"Illegal smuggling of animals is a national health threat to our citizens and local livestock, there are many diseases that are not currently reported in T&T that are present within the mainland. Some of these diseases are zoonotic in nature and possess a severe health threat to the citizens of our country. Most notable is Foot and Mouth Disease which is a highly contagious viral disease that can rapidly spread from infected livestock to humans," Rennie said.
Apart from this, Rennie said this initiative will aid in the Caricom target to reduce the food import bill by 25 per cent by 2025.
"Because if we make the meat affordable to consumers and readily available then we can say that we do not have to import that meat from outside, we don’t have to spend that foreign currency because it is a local product," Rennie said.
"One of the good things with sheep and goat production is that the reliance on seed is not as high as other types of animals like pigs and poultry because a large extent of the animals' diet is grass which we can produce here locally," he said.
