The Ministry of Agriculture and Fisheries is pressing ahead with new measures aimed at strengthening Trinidad and Tobago’s poultry sector, as it works to secure a more reliable supply of eggs and day-old chicks for local farmers.
Central to the plan is a proposed Public-Private Partnership (PPP) to establish a large-scale poultry breeding and hatchery facility in Trinidad and Tobago. The Ministry has confirmed that an Expression of Interest for the project is now open.
The facility, if realized, would produce fertile eggs, breeder stock, and day-old chicks locally for both the broiler and layer industries. Officials say building this kind of domestic breeding and hatchery capacity would reduce the sector’s reliance on imported inputs, strengthen biosecurity and food security, conserve foreign exchange, generate employment, and lower the risk of disruptions tied to international supply chains.
Alongside the hatchery initiative, the Ministry is also working to manage risks linked to the global poultry supply chain, particularly the threat of Highly Pathogenic Avian Influenza (HPAI). As part of that effort, the Netherlands has now been approved as an additional source for hatching eggs and live chicks, joining the United States as an approved supplier.
The Ministry clarified that the detection of avian influenza in a country does not automatically trigger a blanket ban on imports from that nation. Instead, Trinidad and Tobago applies science-based, risk-based measures in line with World Organization for Animal Health (WOAH) standards, including zoning arrangements that permit imports from approved disease-free areas, subject to veterinary and biosecurity requirements. Officials say this approach allows the country to protect its animal health status while still maintaining a dependable flow of poultry inputs to local farmers.
The Ministry was careful to note that simply increasing the number of egg farms will not, on its own, resolve supply shortages. A stable domestic egg supply, it said, depends on the strength of the entire poultry value chain from access to quality layer chicks, feed and feed ingredients, and suitable housing, to reliable water and electricity, veterinary services, biosecurity, financing, labour, transportation, packaging, and stable markets.
With that in mind, the Ministry says its focus is on strengthening the systems that underpin sustainable growth across the sector as a whole. The proposed breeding and hatchery facility is expected to play a central role in that vision, offering domestic breeder capacity for both the broiler and layer industries, modern hatchery infrastructure, improved biosecurity and traceability, and opportunities to build local technical expertise.
The Ministry says it will continue to support the planned, sustainable development of the local egg industry, guided by reliable national production and consumption data, as it works to strengthen local production, reduce vulnerabilities in the poultry supply chain, and give the country’s farmers more consistent access to the inputs they need to supply consumers.