IN ORDER for pork to remain "proper", the price cannot be increased.

And butcher Victor Sealy said any increases would kill the industry.

Sealy, who operates at the Cheapside Market in Bridgetown, said the butchers there were not prepared to move their prices from $6 per pound even though livestock farmers were charging them far more these days for pigs.

"We cannot even think of carrying up the price by 50 cents, far more a dollar. It will kill us. Right now we are struggling; Barbadians are not buying pork like one time. Most of our customers are Guyanese and Chinese.

"We have situations here where butchers bring out three pigs to sell and by the end of the week, they are putting up one-and-a-half. The market cannot take that increase right now," he said.

Sealy said butchers were paying a lot more for pigs from farmers because of the increase in feed, but he said it was a cost they would have to absorb.

"It is a common sense issue that if feed gone up, the pigs would go up. Farmers are now charging $125 for young piglets that used to cost $100 and we are paying from $250 up to $500 for pigs, but we cannot afford to increase pork at this time."

Sealy said there needed to be more communication between all the parties involved.

Last Friday livestock farmers announced they would be raising the price of pork sold to retailers from $9 to $10.90 per kilogramme. (MB)