Gov’t targets $15m egg self-sufficiency

By NEIL HARTNELL Tribune Business Editor nhartnell@tribunemedia.net

THE GOVERNMENT has not cut food security funding by 50 percent but is instead reallocating financing to a $15m project designed to make The Bahamas self-sufficient in egg production, a Cabinet minister has revealed.

Clay Sweeting, minister of agriculture, marine resources and Family Island Affairs, revealed to Tribune Business that the ‘Golden Yoke’ initiative - which is due to launch today - is aiming to take domestic Bahamian egg production from 700,000 per year to 28m when complete and fully operational.

Suggesting that it would slash

The Bahamas’ estimated $1bn food imports by around 1 percent, he explained that it will involve the provision of “climate smart grow houses” in both New Providence and the Family Islands to help create

• Aims to raise local output from 700k to 28m

• Minister: No 50% cut to food security spend

• Farmers to run initiative; no Gov’t take over a sustainable domestic agriculture niche.

And, while the Government is seeking to provide the “enabling” environment, Mr Sweeting emphasised that it was not seeking to take over domestic egg production itself. Rather, he added that management and operational responsibility for the units will be “contracted out” to private farmers, who will also oversee