Agriculture Ministry Focused on Recovery of Egg Industry

The Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Mining is working to rebuild the local egg industry following significant losses from Hurricanes Beryl and Melissa.

Portfolio Minister, Hon. Floyd Green said that recovery of the sector will require partnerships and increased investment in broiler production.

Speaking at the launch of the American Friends of Jamaica (AFJ) small farmers voucher programme at S Hotel in Kingston on Tuesday (February 24), he noted that when Hurricane Melissa hit the island last October, the egg industry was still recovering from the impact of Hurricane Beryl in 2024.

“The reality is that our egg sector did not recover since Hurricane Beryl. We were hoping to see recovery by the end of 2025, so with Melissa coming in October, it has set back our egg sector tremendously, but we are working with the Egg Farmers Association, we are working with our producers and we are ensuring that when we build back, we build back better,” he stated.

Minister Green recently announced a $30-million project to rebuild a hatchery and construct a new pullet house at the College of Agriculture, Science and Education (CASE) in Portland.

He said that the investment will “ensure that we build modern layer houses that will also drive production… of layer fowls so we have more persons coming into egg production. We are also doing egg production in parts of the island that have shown over the past 10 years [that they] are less susceptible to our new climate realities,” he pointed out.

Minister Green noted that Jamaica lost over 700,000 broiler birds during Hurricane Melissa, and some farmers lost their infrastructure completely.

“We lost over 400,000 layers, so that’s over $1 million birds that were lost,” he added.

Minister Green said this loss has significantly impacted entrepreneurs, families, communities and farm workers.

He reiterated that recovery depends on structure, efficiency and most importantly, partnership.

The small farmers voucher programme is an $80-million initiative being undertaken by the American Friends of Jamaica (AFJ) in partnership with Hardware & Lumber Limited (H&L) and the H&L Foundation.

It is targeted at 1,600 farmers in the parishes of Westmoreland, St. Elizabeth, Hanover, St. James, and Trelawny, which were hardest hit during the passage of Hurricane Melissa.

The beneficiaries will be provided with vouchers valued at $50,000 each to access critical agricultural inputs.