The Guardian Newspaper visited several fresh chicken outlets in Belize City and found that most of their freezers are empty. There is simply no chicken available for sale. We sought to investigate and found out that there is actually a shortage of the cheap source of protein.
Amado Cowo, Manager of the Belize Poultry Association confirmed that over the next two weeks, there will be shortages in what are considered specialty cuts like legs, wings, breasts and the like. He explained however that there is currently some 460 thousand pounds of whole chicken in reserves, enough to suffice the market for the next two to three weeks. The shortage will come for the specialty cuts and this is causing outlets to be rationing the purchase of chicken.
Cowo explains that there are entities that are able to purchase large amounts of chicken and store it and if that is allowed to take place, the consumer that purchases small amounts would not be able to have access. The retailers then are now actively only selling small amounts of chicken to customers.
And what has caused the shortfall? Cowo told The Guardian that it is as a result of COVID-19. In mid-April, poultry producers were forced to sell chicken at discounted prices. At the time they had produced the meat to supply normal economic activity but with the shutdown caused by the pandemic they were left with an oversupply, which forced them to sell cheap. Cowo said that a reaction to the pandemic was also to depopulate the birds, meaning that they killed off and sold off live chickens, which would be the egg layers to produce meat. He added that this was done in order to not to incur great losses as the projected demand under the period of lock down was severely reduced. He stated that this was done because producers simply did not know how long it would take for the economy to normalize.
While a shortage in chicken is of concern, Cowo stated that the producers will do their best to meet demands. He added that chicken production runs in cycles of six weeks. Within that time all chicken products are expected to be back to normal supply.
