Yes, the chickens

[sabu]

Last trip, it seemed to me that the Jamaican chickens, in some cases, are becoming Perduized -- bigger and less flavorful, more like the American chickens. I've also noticed that the "Jamaican Broiler" businesses is growing fast. I've seen a few comments with a similar sentiment (Mr. Bigga). Are these big Broiler farms turning out bland, water-pumped chickens. Anyone else noticing the change? I always thought Jamaicans rejected the Perdue style chickens......but last trip we felt like we were missing out on the old school, free ranging, flavorful chickens.

Still ate a lot of chicken.....the seas were stormy so we knew there would be no fresh catch.

[smith744]

boardie-sabu ~~ GOOD-GOOD queries DER...!!!..


my experience
on the board
with *type* of query
is::>>> '''...folks don't wanna *touch* it...''
.....not good for tourist bizne$$$ ..... a '.TMI.' kinda thing-y
.............honest response will mash-up the *game*


me-Too
all-ways *wondering* about dem Ja-chickens
[[[ especially 'cause there's a HUGH chicken processing place,
just on the outskirts of Lucea-town ]]]

i'm gonna *try*
this trip
to do a likkle *investigation*
.......ask some folks
........chat up chix-place employee(s)
.........etc etc blah blah

but for YEARS,
my *gut*-SAY"::>>>> ''... dem eat so much chicken down-yonder-here, that there's NO-way all that cooked chicken is ''..free-range..'' .... nooooooooooooooooo way...''

ummmmmmmmmmmm

sabu...you ever tried the Jamaican KFC chicken..??..
it's NICE..!!! .... much better than chicken in-foreign-KFC
...sweet sweet ... juicy juicy
.
.
again::>> *investigation* soon come

[Rob]

boardie-sabu ~~ GOOD-GOOD queries DER...!!!..


my experience
on the board
with *type* of query
is::>>> '''...folks don't wanna *touch* it...''
.....not good for tourist bizne$$$ ..... a '.TMI.' kinda thing-y
.............honest response will mash-up the *game*

Huh? What game? And why would the truth mash up anything? This topic was all over the news in January.... anyways...



Sabu,

The Jamaica Broilers Group has been around for nearly 60 years. They are growing because they have to grow to supply the ever increasing needs of the population.

During this past Christmas season, there was an island wide shortage of chicken. This was similar to the egg shortage during the holiday season about 3 years ago.

Best Dressed Chicken has brought more local production online but the chicken suppliers had to import chicken to prevent the shortage from continuing. Here is a pic and link to the Loop News story:



http://www.loopjamaica.com/content/b...chicken-demand

This importing was not met without warnings. Here is a pic and link from another story about the shortage:



http://nationwideradiojm.com/levy-wa...ultry-imports/

While there are small chicken farms, they usually supply specific store(s), restaurant(s) or their neighborhood, not the major stores. For that kind of supply, you need large scale raising of chickens. The only truly "free range" chickens I have heard about are the ones from the Chigwell Farm which started in 2013 and operates in Hanover on a small scale. They only produce about 200 chickens per month. We have a small chicken coop in our yard, it is not "free range" by definition, but the chickens are tasty!

Anyone who makes the south coast run to Kingston will see the large Best Dressed Chicken plant right along the road. You cant miss it. Not sure what investigation there needs to be done, by googling you will find out all you would ever want to know.

And KFC is excellent here... (grin)

[Big_frank]

Don`t want to speak for Smith; but it`s obvious that local, free-range, `yard chicken`can`t supply the entire island. Just like so-called `Snapper` isn`t locally `caught` for the most part, and served up the same day at Negril restaurants. There is a Tilapia farmed fish business in Western Jamaica, and that is what many, if not most businesses sell. Gotta note that our recent visit to Negril enlightened us on the Burger King fish situation as well. They used to have a wonderful `Big Fish`sandwich which is now an Alaskan Pollock sandwich and it was Yuck. Also; there is no longer a `We are proud to serve Jamaican Beef` sign on the window at Burger King. Never again. The reasons are quite clear. You can`t supply the succulent local chicken to so many tourists and local people because it`s just not possible or economically viable. So the `western ways` economy sets in.

[smith744]

**in defense** of the chickens served/sold/etc in-Jamaica

for the *most*-part, to me, it *seems* ,,, or it could be my imagination:::>>> HOW the chicken tastes has MORE to do with WHO is doing the cookin'.

in an earlier video,
i posted a chicken & rice dish
i'd purchased from a beach-buddy-vendor::::: i KNOW it was what they call-ed '''..chicken-parts...'' --- not the prime-chicken cuts/pieces/etc .... '''..the parts..'' ...... but it was soooooooooooooooooooooo goooood ::::; delicious, sumptuous, succulent, moist, everything.

as with most things cook-ed::::it's the cooker and the spices and herbs etc etc etc

so,
if you get some ''bad'' chicken
in Jamaica
it's the cooks fault....probably.

[BeachTramp]

We have a small chicken coop in our yard, it is not "free range" by definition, but the chickens are tasty!

Just can't picture you or Lisa plucking feathers, lol.

[Irieonline]

I think "to many mouths and not enough chickens" is happening all over the world. It's the same with other livestock and fruits and vegetables. They are constantly looking for ways to shorten growing seasons and raising chickens and other animals to grow bigger in a shorter amount of time. That's the price we pay for overpopulating the planet and why would our beloved Jamaica be any different. It does suck but in a way we should be greatfull that people are doing something about it. The world is loosing valuable land used to raise animals and grow food for human consumption. Not sure that it is a topic for discussion here but like it or not it is the way of the future and the price we pay for what we are doing to the planet

[Accompong]

I was in Accompong Town during this shortage and, although we don't eat meat at my home, my neighbors raise a lot of chickens for eggs and for meat both "free range" and in a coop.

This shortage was caused by several factors. Feed got too expensive to raise chickens for meat so the production went down and they just let them roam for food and roost for the egg production. Next, the eggs were in very short supply and you couldn't find them in the stores in Santa Cruz. Also, those who bought chickens to raise had to put up a large deposit as much as 6 months in advance of delivery or getting the chickens wouldn't be guaranteed. Most Jamaican farmers don't have the ready cash to do that so when they became available for sale, the people who did pay the deposits got most of all the available chickens. Tourism goes up dramatically and the demand for the tourist market severely impacted the availability for local street and store vendors to the point that they could only by one bag of chicken parts at a time. Many small cook shops had to close their doors because they had no chicken to sell.

All these occurring at the same time dried up the supply and the prices too. At $120.00+ Jamaican to a US $, the $200 - $400J box lunches could not pay for the increased price causing more problems.

This is a problem that will most likely occur every year during tourist season now until production can ramp up at an affordable price to supply both the tourist and local market.

Peace and Guidance

[smith744]

question:::>>> I vague-ly remember a not to long-ago [[[ 9-months ?? ]]] chicken and egg shortage in the good 'ole USofA.

the '.cause.' was::>>> the chicken producer/processors had sick-sick, diseased, some kinda-virus((???)) chickens and all their flocks, or large portions of their flocks had to be destroy-ed .... i.e., killed.

is this what happen-ed in Jamaica,
when it had it's chicken & egg shortage...??.

[johng]

Not sure about the supply / demand for chickens but I can tell you that the chicken farms that I have seen in JA are what one might expect in rural JA. 40 miles from Kingston I have no idea who the farmer sells to but I have eaten one of these birds and no way they are juiced up with steroids as the meat is on the lean side but tasted good. Everybody in the community eats them with seemingly no negative effect.