by DONNA SEALY

AS PROJECTIONS for the poultry industry are set to surpass the previous year's for the second straight year, president of the Barbados Egg and Poultry Producers' Association Carlyle Brathwaite says his group is under some "pressure" and might soon have to negotiate for "better prices".

"We are experiencing quite a bit of pressure though to be able to keep it [the price] at what it is because of the high cost of water rates. My water rate has [shown] a 100 per cent increase.

"I'm paying more in electricity and it is all right for a person to tell you it hasn't gone to the powers that be for an increase, but what I used to pay has doubled and after a time, you'll get to a point where you're barely existing," he said in an interview with the DAILY NATION.

Brathwaite also said labour costs too were impacting on poultry farmers because they could not pay workers less than what was paid by those in the sugar industry and expect them to stay.

No farms were on the brink of collapse, however, he reported.

"We have these increases that have been gradually creeping up on us and we have to look at them. So the time is going to come very soon when we will have to look and ask the processing plants for a better price, but that is dependent on the processing plant and how we can negotiate that," Brathwaite added.

He said, however, that as an individual he could ask for a price increase but not for another producer, because pricing was done by each [processing] company and they made offers which where either accepted or rejected.

Brathwaite made it clear, though, that he could not say if there would be an increase in chicken prices as the producers did not control prices either.

"I am no longer the person who looks at pricing in poultry. Since the Fair Trading Commission came into existence, it was spelt out to me that the only way we can do it is if we are unionised and got special permission from the Fair Trading [Commission] to do it . . . . I would have to first unionise the association and then we'll be able to make representation on their behalf for the price."

He also said ten million birds were expected to be produced by year-end, adding that the target could go up to "10.3 million maximum".

"I know that fish is a scarcity in the world and if we see that scarcity here this year in the same manner which we saw it in the last two years, then we would expect to do close to 10.5 million this year," Brathwaite said.

In 2004, some 8.58 million birds were produced, while last year's target of ten million fell short by half-million.

Brathwaite said Barbados' demand for chicken had increased over the last two years by 11 per cent each year.