The Guyana Swine Producers Association says government’s $20 million investment in high-quality swine breeders has paid off. The investment was made through the Ministry of Agriculture.
Chairman of the Association, Eric Anderson says the acquisition and importation of approximately one hundred Topigs 40 from neighbouring Suriname in early 2016, has resulted in marked improvement in the sector’s output.
Chairman of the Guyana Swine Producers Association, Eric Anderson.
“One of our goals was to lift the level of productivity and we have been very successful we have been able to get the number of pigs furrowed on the average, roughly 17 per furrowing that’s the litter size,” Anderson explained.
Anderson further told the Department of Public Information (DPI) that while the number of piglets per furrowing range from 14 to 21, the mean is around 17 which means local producers are now achieving international standards of output per sow.
“That means that every year you can now get approximately 3o piglets per sow while previously it was averaging around 8 per sow. That is necessary for us to be competitive,” the chairman added.
The Topigs 40 is a high yielding swine breed and the resulting high quality of meat is produced in a relatively short time when compared to other breeds reared locally. This has seen an increase in demand for the locally produced pork and pork products Anderson also said.
“Currently there is access to market because what we recognised, more pork is being consumed and consumers are now going for quality meat. They no longer want anything which they have to tear or pressure. This is quality pork, very little fat, muscle skin to muscle,” he noted
Meanwhile, the association’s chairman said it is thankful for government’s support and training received from IICA in value-added production and looks forward to continued assistance even as the association sets its sights on regional exports.
“On the swine production front, we expect to see more processing we’ve started some processing which will allow to market more pork. The position is we have to do a little more training and our packaging needs improving,” the executive member opined.
