A public dispute over Barbados’ poultry industry policy has erupted this week, after the head of the island’s leading agricultural industry body accused the government of pursuing contradictory policies that hurt local producers. On Tuesday, senior agricultural regulators and state enterprise leaders pushed back forcefully against those allegations, presenting quantitative data and regulatory frameworks to defend their import management strategy.
James Paul, Chief Executive Officer of the Barbados Agricultural Society (BAS), opened the debate last week when he criticized the government’s dual approach to the poultry and pork sectors. Paul argued that while state bodies provide financial and logistical support to help domestic producers expand output, the state-owned Barbados Agricultural Development and Marketing Corporation (BADMC) simultaneously allows large volumes of imported poultry and pork from both regional and international suppliers to enter the local market.
Paul warned that this mismatch in policy is actively undercutting local producers at a time when both small-scale and large domestic farming operations are ramping up production. He claimed the flood of imports has exacerbated a growing storage capacity crisis, leaving small farmers unable to sell their locally raised stock and pushing key public storage facilities like the BICO cold store close to maximum occupancy. Compounding these challenges, recent ownership changes at major storage infrastructure have left small-scale producers bracing for higher operational fees, shrinking profit margins, and even potential business closure, Paul added.
But senior leaders from the Ministry of Agriculture and BADMC pushed back against these claims during a Tuesday press briefing held at the ministry’s Graeme Hall, Christ Church office, restricting their formal response to issues in the poultry sector. Chief Agricultural Officer Paul Lucas told reporters that BADMC, the state entity legally tasked with managing all authorized poultry imports, enforces rigorous volume controls at every step of the import process, with all decisions guided by hard market data.
Presenting import and consumption data for the first six months of 2026, Lucas outlined that domestic demand for poultry remains strong across the island, while total import volumes have actually fallen year-on-year. He noted that Barbados’ domestic poultry production has expanded steadily over the past five years, driven by consistent local consumer preference for chicken as the leading protein source for most households. For the opening half of 2026, total domestic poultry consumption hit more than 8.4 million kilograms, with over 90 percent of that volume supplied by local producers, Lucas confirmed.
Comparing import volumes across years, Lucas highlighted a clear downward trend: total poultry imports dropped from 582,446 kilograms in the first half of 2025 to just 485,840 kilograms in the same period of 2026. “Based on this data, we are able to determine that the imports have not overshadowed the local production,” Lucas told journalists.
Fredrick Inniss, BADMC’s acting chief executive, further detailed the regulatory framework that guides the corporation’s import purchasing decisions. He explained that after extensive consultations with poultry industry stakeholders starting in 2021, the BADMC board implemented strict new import restrictions designed specifically to protect the market share of domestic producers.
Inniss explained that targeted limits are particularly enforced during low-demand “off-shoulder” periods, when imports of chicken wings are capped at just 45,000 kilograms to avoid flooding the local market. While BADMC does facilitate imports of specialty products including turkey wings and turkey necks to meet consumer demand, all imports are aligned with formal agreed frameworks that prioritize local producers, he added.
Past occasional spikes in import volumes were not arbitrary moves to undercut local farmers, but targeted interventions to address temporary domestic supply deficits, Inniss said. He cited 2024’s 290,000-kilogram whole chicken import program as an example of this strategy, which was launched specifically to cover a temporary shortfall in local production. “It is not simply a wholesale case of the BADMC bringing chicken wings or whole chicken product onto the island to the detriment of the sector,” Inniss said. “We actually are working assiduously to ensure that we work hand in hand with the sector.”
Ongoing dialogue between regulators and producers is formalized through a dedicated poultry committee chaired by a senior Ministry of Agriculture officer, which ensures that industry concerns are continuously reviewed and addressed, the acting BADMC CEO added.
Deputy Chief Agricultural Officer Barry Callender echoed these remarks, noting that all ministry policy decisions are rooted in objective data collected directly from producers, restaurant buyers, and other industry stakeholders. “The ministry is responsible enough not to go out there and make wild decisions based on no facts,” Callender said. “The ministry is not going to allow importation that is going to hinder or bring the production of the local farmers into question.”
In a surprising observation, Callender acknowledged that the sector’s growing storage challenges may stem not from unfair import competition, but from the industry’s own successful expansion. “The production levels within the sector have increased significantly, and that is something that we as a poultry committee and a sector have to look at to see how best we can make sure that the farmers are still satisfied and in some way not hindered by the overproduction,” he said.
