Guyana tripled last year’s hatching egg production – Min. Mustapha

With 94,000 hatching eggs produced so far this year, Guyana is aggressively working to increase its production of this commodity.

This was stated by Minister of Agriculture, Zulfikar Mustapha, during a community meeting at No. 63 Village in Region Six on Saturday.

Currently, Guyana imports nearly 53 million eggs annually at a cost of over $350 million.

To reduce this dependency, the country launched a hatching egg production programme in 2023 with a private partnership, resulting in the production of 27,000 eggs last year at the broiler breeder facility on the East Bank corridor.

This facility was established to reduce the reliance on imported hatching eggs.

“So, at the end of the year, we will produce more. So, you could see how much we have produced already. But that will not be sufficient for us… We are spending a lot of money importing eggs into this country,” the agriculture minister stated.

Minister Mustapha noted that, initially, Guyana produced a significant number of table eggs before starting hatching egg production. Table eggs, also known as shell eggs, are unfertilised.

He continued, “These hatching eggs come from North America and Brazil. But sometimes, when you have supply chain issues and you have the cost for import increasing, the farmers in Guyana suffer. So that is why we have to be self-sufficient and we are working towards that.”

Looking ahead, Minister Mustapha is optimistic that Guyana will be able to produce a substantial number of hatching eggs to supply both local and regional markets.

The government continues to prioritise the agriculture sector by undertaking numerous projects aimed at boosting food production and reducing the region’s food import bill.