J’cans ate less chicken in 2023, exports rise
Published:Friday | January 26, 2024 | 12:11 AMAvia Collinder - /Business Writer
Jamaica Broilers Limited’s figures show that the consumption of chicken in 2023 was slightly less than the year before.
The latest data from the Government says Jamaicans consumed 136,644,428 kilogrammes of broiler meat and 1.11 million kilogrammes of stewing hens last year.
Comparatively, a total of 138,799,703 kilogrammes of broiler meat and 1.05 million kilogrammes of stewing hens were consumed in 2022.
Chicken, depending on the cut, can range in price anywhere between $350 and $400 per pound. The price for the meat was last hiked in 2022 by around 10 per cent.
The margin of increase is less than in the United States, where chicken price rose higher in 2023 as big producers closed plants across the country.
The cost per pound of a whole chicken in that market increased by about 34 per cent from August 2021 to August 2023, according to data from the US Department of Labor.
Jamaicans, meanwhile, eat 10 times as much chicken as they do the second most-consumed meat, which is beef. Comparatively, in 2022 beef consumption was about 20 million kilogrammes, this from data provided by Agro-Invest Corporation, the state agency which facilitates agri-business. It sources information from the Statistical Institute of Jamaica (STATIN).
In 2022, the consumption of pork was 12.33 million kilogrammes.
Owen Scarlett, senior director of Agro-Parks and Production Zones at Agro-Invest, says that data from the Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Mining set chicken production levels at 140 million kilogrammes in 2022, an increase of 11.8 per cent over the 125 million kilogrammes produced in 2021.
No production data is ready for 2022.
Jamaica Broilers says it increased sales in 2022 and made a profit of $4.3 billion for the year, up 39 per cent from $3 billion, despite $1.09 billion in losses from the discontinuation of its Haiti operation.
The Financial Gleaner reached out to its competitor CB Chicken for information on sales, but no response was garnered.
STATIN, meanwhile, indicates that chicken exports are on the rise. Exports of chicken amounted to J$733.87 million in 2021, when 1.3 million kilogrammes were exported to markets.
Export categories included chicken parts and gallus domesticus, a category which is made of chickens and capons, or fattened cocks.
The primary export destination was the Cayman Islands, with other export markets in that year being Antigua and Barbuda, Trinidad and Tobago, Barbados, British Virgin Islands, and St Maarten (Dutch).
Comparatively, chicken exports were valued at J$1.24 billion in 2022. Quantities for this preliminary estimate were not shared.
Agro-Invest also indicated that while imported chicken is on the decline, the amount being brought into the country is still significant.
Coming down, by volume, from 42.67 million kilogrammes in 2013, imports of chicken in 2021 were 23.34 million kilogrammes. The following year, imports were 20.46 million kilogrammes. The main source of chicken imports is the United States.