Jamaica investigates alternative beef imports

Friday, January 2, 2004

KINGSTON, Jamaica: The Jamaican Ministry of Agriculture has announced that it will be investigating four countries, where beef may continue to be imported into Jamaica, to fill the void arising from the recent ban on US beef imports. The countries are the Dominican Republic, Uruguay, Costa Rica and Panama.

Minister of Agriculture, Roger Clarke said the investigation will be done in collaboration with the International Organisation of Epizootics (OIE), the France-based watchdog which monitors animal health.

"The chief veterinary officer is going to be in contact with the OIE immediately, as with the (four) countries to find out what their status is," he told reporters. 

With the investigations completed, he said, the Ministry should begin accepting applications for permits to import beef and beef products from the four countries within a few weeks, in addition to New Zealand and Australia, where imports have been allowed.

Jamaica banned imports from the US last week, after that country admitted that they had discovered a cow on one of their farms, which had been infected with bovine spongiform encephalopathy or mad cow disease.

The US Agriculture Department said that the cow was imported from a farm in Alberta, Canada. However, checks are being made to see whether the disease may have also come into the country by means of infected feed. 

Jamaica's monthly imports, on average, amounts to some 628,242 kilograms of beef, 66 per cent of which come from the United States. 

With the shortage of beef now arising, Minister Clarke is appealing to the local industry to help revive local beef production, which has fallen drastically in recent years when farmers stopped producing, because they were not being paid full value for their products. 

The problem, the Minister said, was that there was a "great disparity between the price that the farmer gets and what the consumer pays in the market place and the exploitation was caused primarily because there seemed to be an over supply."

Now that beef consumption has gone up and with the shortage, he said there is a "window of opportunity" for local farmers. 

"What we want to do now … is to begin to put some kind of organization in place, lead by the Jamaica Livestock Association, which educates the farmers to begin to let them sit down and say, 'come now we can bargain' and let there be dialogue between patty people who are in the business, as to how much they pay for beef and how much the farmer gets. Let the process be transparent and we will understand. It is not a government process it is a process that must be led by the farmers," the Minister said. 

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