Halting the purchasing of imported eggs.

You not understand the volume of eggs that Haiti imports every year, especially from the Dominican Republic.  I just talked about exporting to the DR, now I want to talk about importing.  Many Haitians want to buy local, but the cost to do so often gets in the way.  While some will argue the imported eggs and chicken parts may be contaminated, many Haitians are on a strict budget and will purchase imported food so that their money will go father.  For the price of  150.00 Gourdes, one could get several chicken parts and a fish.  Again this is from importers.  How do you stop this and give Haitian farmers a chance?

Volume.  If you flood the market, then prices go down.  When the Haitian price of eggs and chicken parts go down, you then will see the flow of imported chicken parts and eggs go down.  Currently Dominican eggs are 14.00 Gourdes or so, and Haitian eggs are 20.00 Gourdes.  That small difference in cost adds up over time and it makes the Dominican eggs more attractive to the buyer.

Large chicken farms can help Haiti from this problem.  Haitian farmers need to use more advanced methods in chicken farming and understanding husbandry.  This will make a major difference, and the Haitian farmers will make more overall.

All again why I am setting up a Co-Op to prevent issues such as this.  When you have several people who want to go into the chicken industry and work together the prices, methods, and marketing changes.  For example lets say that 10 farmers on La Gonave wanted to go into the chicken business for eggs and chicken parts.  If each farm had 25,000 chickens, then you are looking at 250,000 chickens that are laying eggs.  Just from 10 farmers.  Many of the male chickens will be used for slaughter, and these farms will have their own incubators. 

So imagine the volume of eggs and meat from an operation that involves just 10 farmers in this example.  There is no reason why the country should import the volumes of eggs that it currently does.  There is no reason why farmers can't compete.  Will it cost money to setup a proper large scale production?  Yes, a large sum of money is needed.  On the back end it is well worth it.  Same goes for fish that is imported as well that contains some unhealthy by products.  If Haitians relied more on large fish farming activities, then the price will go down.  We have to look at the overall long term approach.  Having a co-op is essential as it can carry the financial weight to get the job done.  Many times it can be done for far cheaper than you may think.

Go Gonave!