Livestock farmers suffer more than $300 million in losses from Beryl

   

Agriculture Minister Floyd Green says Jamaica's livestock farmers have taken a major hit from Hurricane Beryl.

 

Speaking in the House of Representatives on Tuesday, Minister Green revealed that poultry and pig farmers lost millions of dollars in livestock during the hurricane.

 

"Our small poultry farmers were severely hit, with 43,000 layer birds and 278,000 broilers being lost, amounting to over $200 million in damages; 980 small ruminants, 514 pigs, 278 cattle were also lost - again, over $100 million in damages. One of the areas that we don't often speak about but is very important to our agricultural sector is apiculture - our beekeepers - and we lost 640 bee colonies in Hurricane Beryl, amounting to over $12 million in damages," he outlined. 

 

Minister Green said the farming sector was extensively damaged by the hurricane, with nearly 50,000 farmers affected and thousands of hectares of farmland impacted.

 

The cost of the hurricane to Jamaica's agriculture sector has been estimated at $4.7 billion.