Poultry Production Push: New Facility in the Works to Tackle Processing Bottleneck

Plans are underway to boost local chicken production with a dedicated processing facility, according to Minister John Osborne.

Speaking at the United Alliance town hall on June 5, Osborne said the new facility is aimed at addressing the main constraint facing chicken farmers: a lack of local slaughter and processing capacity.

“What we found is that the bottleneck is not necessarily in producing chickens, but in processing them,” Osborne explained. “Farmers don’t produce more because they can’t kill and process enough to match what they’re raising.”

The government is aiming to meet 50% of Montserrat’s monthly chicken demand, which currently stands at around 6,000 birds. “That gives us a target of roughly 3,000 chickens per month,” he said.

To support the plan, Osborne noted that steps are being taken to improve the supply of chicks and feed. “Montserrat doesn’t usually order enough chicks to justify a direct shipment, so we wait on larger islands like Antigua. But if we increase our order volumes, that could change,” he said. “The same goes for feed. With higher volumes, we could see reduced prices due to economies of scale.”