by CARLOS ATWELL

UPSET at losing "an average of $1 million a month", poultry farmers will take to the streets if Government does not adequately address their concerns.

Yesterday at a Barbados Egg & Poultry Producers Association (BEPPA) emergency meeting at The Grotto, Beckles Road, St Michael, a majority of the more than 100 gathered farmers voted to take the action.

Feelings ran so high at the meeting that immediate past president Carlyle Brathwaite advised the poultry farmers to shut down the industry in order to get Government to listen to them.

"Put the chicken in the freezer and shut the freezer! Close down all the cold storage outlets and notify Government we cannot sell at a loss. Within 24 hours the store shelves would be empty and we would get a meeting," he said.

However, BEPPA president Wendell Clarke said such action would take planning and strategy and was not being considered as yet.

Clarke said he was assured by the ministries of Agriculture and Trade that Government would be looking at the plight of poultry farmers when Cabinet meets tomorrow.

Owner Farmer at Sherbourne Farms, Geoff Browne, then asked for a motion to be passed to march.

Originally the farmers wanted to march to Cabinet tomorrow but decided to wait and see what would happen first and then take protest action next week if nothing was done.

In his address, Clarke said the farmers were losing an average of $1 million a month and it was unfair for them to "carry the cost of living".

He said he was confident Government would either remove the price cap on whole chicken or raise it to match the hike in feed prices as they had "no other choice".

In February, Pinnacle Feeds, Barbados' lone animal and poultry feed supplier, raised the prices of animal and poultry feeds by $25 per metric tonne in response to world price increases in corn and soya beans.