The main farmers’ body on Monday stepped up pressure on the government’s facilitation of imports of poultry and pork, insisting they are undercutting domestic production and pushing small farmers towards collapse, Barbados TODAY can reveal.

Chief executive of the Barbados Agricultural Society (BAS), James Paul, angrily pointed to the state-owned Barbados Agricultural Management Company (BAMC) which is allowing the importation of poultry and pork even while both industries are expanding production and operations.

Paul told Barbados TODAY: “We are very concerned on two fronts. One, you have a situation where we have had expansion in the poultry industry. We have gotten assistance… [which] was rendered through the BAS by the government, to expand the operations. So, we have more poultry coming onto the market.