Dear Editor,
Egg prices on certain Caribbean islands have gone through the roof. If you don’t have a local backyard chicken or two, serving you up some eggs on a daily basis, you are left to do without or pay those high supermarket prices. One option is to produce locally and purchase locally.
One reason why eggs are so expensive is due to the bird flu (Avian influenza). U.S. poultry farms have been impacted by bird flu where 166 million birds have been affected since January 2022, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
In January this year alone, 8.3 million birds have died due to bird flu, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture.
The United Nations (UN) Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) recently stated that the rapid spread of the highly infectious avian flu virus had reached unprecedented scale, wiping out hundreds of millions of birds worldwide and increasingly spilling over into mammals.
The economic impact is being felt worldwide. St. Maarten and other Caribbean islands import eggs from the U.S. and consumers are suffering with high prices. A dozen eggs in Saba are approximately US $15. In Colombia three dozen are US $325.
The erratic America First policy by the new U.S. administration that took over on January 20, 2025, especially the ad hoc tariff policy leading to uncertainty around the globe has caused more chaos to date leading to the U.S. stock market losing trillions since the November 2024 U.S. election.
The postponement and then on-again tariffs on Canada and Mexico can only lead to an increase in the costs of doing business which would be translated to an increase in the price of products across the three countries (U.S., Canada and Mexico).
The implications in the U.S. could impact prices of imported food products which are still to materialize in the coming months for St. Maarten consumers.
Bearing the aforementioned in mind, a local egg production pilot program should be started as one aspect of creating a sustainable path for self-sufficiency. This project could be an initiative for the St. Maarten Farmer’s Cooperative (SMFC).
The Cayman Islands Department of Agriculture launched the EggsUp programme with the aim to support Caymanian families with children by providing fresh local eggs.
Funding could be sought initially from the Government or via funds from the Trust Fund that is associated with the National Recovery Program Bureau (NRPB). This very important project could bring relief to consumers.
Other nations within the region who import 90 per cent of their food products from the United States of America are taking a deeper look at this dependency and how it can be reduced. The realization of the current political landscape is a wake-up call and that something needs to be done with a new determination for self-reliance.
Roddy Heyliger
