Barbados works on insurance fund

President of the Barbados Egg and Poultry Producers Association Carlyle Brathwaite said so at a seminar on the avian influenza on the islands.


Brathwaite said he was proposing the meeting with poultry farmers "so as to sit down with them and outline the whole project of what I am trying to do. I am trying to create a fund that would have anywhere around $50 to $55 million in it."


The poultry farmers' leader said it would take five to six years to create the fund and could then be used in times of calamities.


He also added that he does not want poultry farmers or the association to be dependent on Government. Brathwaite also took the time to express concern that there is a situation where farmers are in a "bubble of success".


The BEPPA President also said he was pleased with the high turnout to the seminar, stating that it indicates the seriousness that those in the industry have as it relates to fighting bird flu.


He added that in light of the first seminar which, according to him, also helped with educating poultry farmers on farm management, standards on farms, to guarantee a better product to consumers, there will be more seminars.