Guyana seeking to reduce import of eggs

  • Aug, Tue, 2024

 Guyana says it has produced an estimated 94,000 hatching eggs so far this year and is aggressively working towards increasing production,  Agriculture Minister, Zulfikar Mustapha, has said.

Currently, Guyana imports nearly 53 million eggs annually at a cost of over GUY$350 million (One Guyana dollar=US$0.004 cents) and in a bid to reduce this dependency, the country launched a hatching egg production programme in 2023 with a private partnership, resulting in the production of 27,000 eggs last year.

“So, at the end of the year, we will produce more. So, you could see how much we have produced already. But that will not be sufficient for us… We are spending a lot of money importing eggs into this country,” Mustapha said.

Mustapha noted that, initially, Guyana produced a significant number of table eggs before starting hatching egg production. Table eggs, also known as shell eggs, are unfertilised.

“These hatching eggs come from North America and Brazil. But sometimes, when you have supply chain issues and you have the cost for import increasing, the farmers in Guyana suffer. So that is why we have to be self-sufficient and we are working towards that.”

Mustapha said he remains optimistic that Guyana will be able to produce a substantial number of hatching eggs to supply both local and regional markets.

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