A recent visit to the poultry farm, which was known as the‘National Poultry Farm’ at Post Royal, St. Andrew, has revealed the restoration of the enterprise, under new management.
The farm that has been out of operation for a number of yearsis rebranded under the name‘Family Farms Grenada’ and is owned by 30-year-old, Coby Williams. Williams has two pens, with a strong desire to increase the consumption of local chicken, he aims to produce thousands of chickens on a monthly basis.
Having visited the site and getting a tour of the facility, Minister of Agriculture and Lands, Hon Yolande Bain Horsford, expressed her full support for the initiative and commends Williams for his commitment to the industry.
“We have to support him and I am very intrigued with what he is doing here. You don’t see that level of commitment and passion and desire in young people and here is a young man fulfilling that and I want to commend him wholeheartedly and wish him well. We would support him as much as we can,” Minister Bain-Horsford said.
“It is good for the area too; the economic part of it, persons would get little jobs in the area, we would be eating healthy chicken. So hats off to him,” she added.
Williams plans to create a poultry brand in Grenada; reducing importation of chicken as much as he can, noting that Grenada imported over 20 million pounds of poultry in 2018.
“We are excited to grab some of that business, supply a better product to customers; do it in a better way; a new way. Right now with the capacity of these two houses, we can hold up to six thousand chickens, we plan to get it up to about nine thousand in the next two months or so…but we are looking at pushing out three to four thousand chickens every five weeks. Over the next year, we are looking at over 35 thousand birds produced and sold,” he said
Acting Chief Veterinary and Livestock Officer in the Ministry of Agriculture and Lands, Dr. Kimmond Cummings, said concessions and other supportive measures were handed out to Mr. Williams for the sustenance of his farm.
“Directly, we have offered lots of technical and concessionary assistance. Indirectly, we are setting up the structures presently within the industry, so persons like Mr. Williams, as we go forward, their business will be able to thrive,” he said.
The Grenada Association of Poultry Producers has been struggling to increase the production level of local poultry for quite some time. With the coming on stream of Family Farms Grenada, Strategic Manager of the Association, Joshua Lewis, believes it will aid in increasing the production percentage.
“I think essentially, we are producing 10% of the poultry that are consumed in Grenada now and we are aiming to accelerate to 40% in three to five years, so this is a tremendous initiative in helping us get towards that 40%,” Lewis stated.
MINISTRY OF AGRICULTURE AND LANDS
