The Minister of Agriculture and Fisheries Floyd Green stated that the agricultural sector is expected to see a 26 per cent reduction in egg production based on the projected forecast for the period of January to June 2025.

While speaking at the Post Cabinet Press Briefing on Wednesday, February 19, Green highlighted that though the sector has seen a rebound in several areas, especially vegetables—tomatoes, sweet peppers, and other green leafy vegetables—the egg supply has reduced.

“The egg industry still remains under pressure, and this pressure started in Hurricane Beryl, where we saw over 43,000 laying eggs being lost to the hurricane,” Green said.

“This has severely impacted our domestic egg production. In fact, not only did we experience this amount of loss, but even the birds that survived Hurricane Beryl went through a period of trauma where they were not laying in their normal production numbers, and this was compounded by the rains that we had to the end of October and all of November, which again affected our production numbers significantly,” he continued.

Green emphasised that the industry produced 123 million eggs from January to June 2024. However, this year the numbers are projected to be lower. “This year we are projecting to produce 95.4 million eggs, and we have seen where, because of this limited supply, there is some increase in relation to price,” he said. Green underscored that this issue has also provided some pressure in relation to pullet price. Pullets are ready to lay hens, which have seen a 5 per cent increase in prices.

Steps the ministry has taken to combat this challenge

In an effort to combat this challenge, Green stated that the ministry distributed up to the end of December about 50,000 pullets across the hardest-hit parishes.

“We have also started to target our large-scale users of eggs and to allow them to be able to import liquid eggs, especially for the baking and hospitality industry, so that will allow more whole eggs for local consumers,” he said. “We have already reached out to a number of our baking companies and a number of our hotels. In fact, the Jamaica Hotel and Tourist Association did write to me, and we did indicate that that is the direction that we are pursuing.”

The minister has also been working with the Jamaica Broilers and Caribbean Broilers to see how best to secure hatching eggs from alternative markets.

“If you have been paying attention to what has been happening in the US, you realise that the challenge with egg supply is not just a local challenge, and the US is where a lot of our hatching eggs come from,” he added. “Furthermore, we have tasked the team at the Veterinary Services Division to work with Jamaica Broilers and Caribbean Broilers to explore alternative markets to include Belgium and the Netherlands to see how best we can secure hatching eggs.”

Green also highlighted that the ministry team has been collaborating with the Jamaica Egg Farmers Association and the Jamaica Hotel and Tourist Association to look at the demand as the year progresses.

“We are looking at the demands as we go through the rest of the year, especially for our bakeries and for our tourism sector, to ensure that we are always able to satisfy the demand and reduce some of the strain on our retail sector,” Green said. “We do expect that pre-Beryl levels will return by July 2025 once there are no external disruptions. We will continue to monitor and adjust interventions.”