Pig farmers expected to meet demand for Christmas season

 

Jamaica's pig farmers say they are expecting no challenge in meeting the demand for pork in the Christmas season.

 

President of the Jamaica Pig Farmers Association Hanif Brown says member farmers have put things in place to increase production for the season. 

 

"The supply is excellent. We had an industry meeting probably four weeks-five weeks ago and I was happy to know that all the processors and the various entities have indicated that they have sufficient quantities for the Christmas season and beyond." 

 

Meanwhile, the local industry, which was valued at $15 billion before the pandemic, is hoping for a boost.

 

Mr. Brown said Jamaica's consumption of pork is lower than that for a number of other jurisdictions in the region, despite the output capacity:

 

"The target of course is to increase the consumption of pork. We are among the lowest per capita consumption as a country; we stand at 4.4 kilograms of pork per person per annum. That's well well below any of the countries nearest to us such as even Cuba that stands at 21.9kg or even the first world countries such as USA, Canada, even China, well above 40 kgs. So our strategy is to try and double the pork consumption in Jamaica over the next three to five years," he declared.