By Sheria Brathwaite
An entrepreneur is gearing up to launch Barbados’ first poultry breeding facility amid mounting concerns about the island’s dependence on imported hatching eggs, Barbados TODAY can reveal exclusively.
With renovations complete and expansion plans underway, Errol Andrew of Hatch An Egg Limited said he is seeking to establish a new breeding farm, aiming to boost food security, lower costs for farmers, and secure a steady supply of chicks ahead of the high-demand Christmas season.
After investing just over half a million dollars to start a hatching egg venture, Andrew is now in talks with investors and business partners to open the breeding facility, he said in an exclusive interview with Barbados TODAY. The initiative forms part of Andrew’s long-term vision to strengthen domestic food security and ensure a consistent supply of chicks for the domestic market, particularly during the high-demand Christmas period, he said.
“This has been our first year in business, which has been a big learning curve,” Andrew said. “Right now, our capacity, we’re probably doing about 20 000 chicks a month. And we are working all the way to see that we can get to 20 000 a week.
So in the next six months or so, that’s where we want to be at, doing at least 20 000 a week.”
He said the hatchery, located at The Mount, St George, has been well received by small farmers and is currently focused on supplying broiler chicks, with plans to introduce layer chicks as part of its expansion.
“A big thing in Barbados is food security and having, especially these next few months coming up to Christmas, enough chicks so farmers can raise for the Christmas season and the New Year season,” he said. “So we definitely want to be a big part of that.”
Andrew, who developed an interest in poultry in 2018 after helping a friend at a processing plant, revealed that Hatch An Egg Limited sources its eggs primarily from Miami and Belgium.
“I do have a source in Miami that I’ve been dealing with since I started; it’s where I did a lot of my training for the hatchery processes,” he explained. “They’re the ones who supply me mainly with my eggs, but I also get eggs from Belgium also from another company. They don’t sell eggs out of the country that is not certified or get eggs from areas that have the bird flu, so I don’t have to worry about that.”
Importing eggs is expensive and logistically challenging, making the establishment of a breeding farm a major goal, the entrepreneur said.
“That’s one of the things that we also want—to have our own breeding farm in Barbados, where we can ensure that we have our own eggs and we wouldn’t have to import from overseas,” he said. “It will get rid of the whole shipping part. It will also help us navigate the whole bird flu thing. If we have our own breeding facility on the island, it somewhat secures you…”
Andrew said the company’s expansion plans also include introducing different breeds of birds, establishing training partnerships with local agricultural bodies such as the Barbados Agricultural Society (BAS) and the Barbados Egg and Poultry Producers Association (BEPPA), and sharing best practices among farmers.
“We want people to know that Hatch An Egg is a small business but we’re going to take it step by step to get there, and we are not going anywhere,” he declared. “It’s going to be part of Barbados’ poultry business for a long time coming.”
“One of the things that we’re also doing is sharing best practices with farmers. It’s something that we already do, but we want to do it on a bigger scale—probably with the BAS or BEPPA—where we can educate farmers a lot better on best practices.” Andrew noted that most of his clients are small- to medium-scale farmers, typically raising between 100 and 2 500 birds, and said he aims to keep his prices competitive.
“Because I’m a smaller business than my competitor, my overhead is a lot less, so I do charge a little bit less,” he explained. “You might think that five pence or ten pence less than their price is not a lot, but it’s a lot for somebody who buys 400, 500 or 1 000 birds. It makes a difference.”
The hatchery recently underwent renovations and was closed for two or three months and is set to resume operations this month, with new hatches scheduled for October 18, 23, and 30.
Andrew shared that he relied on small loans and family support to start the business, and has also applied to the Agricultural Growth Fund for a loan to assist with expansion.
“We did apply to the agricultural fund. We did a business plan back in January and submitted it,” he said. “But we haven’t heard back officially from them yet. And it’s what—October now—so I don’t know what’s going on with that. Hopefully we get a response soon, which will definitely help. That could help a lot, especially for the expansion.”
Despite the financial hurdles, Andrew remains optimistic that Hatch An Egg Limited will continue to grow and play a pivotal role in building Barbados’ poultry industry.
“We’re looking into having different types of breeds of birds also that we can do. And also bringing in layers is something that we’re going to add to our business in the future,” he said.
“Every Christmas there’s a big thing about not having enough table eggs in the country—and we want to help fix that.” sheriabrathwaite@barbadostoday.bb
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