shortage of eggs in Villa Clara due to change in the chickens’ diet 2024-04-04 19:24:34

Villa Clara, in central Cuba, faces a poultry crisis due to a change in the chickens’ feeding formula.

The director of the Poultry Company in Villa Clara, Lázara Montes de Oca, has publicly admitted that the egg quota could not be guaranteed in March due to significant problems in the daily production of the birds. This setback is attributed to a change in the birds’ feeding formula.

According to explained Montes de Oca to journalist Abel Falcón for local station CMHW, poultry production began to decline in February, when corn, an essential component of the birds’ diet, was replaced.

Change in the chicken feeding formula causes a poultry crisis in Villa Clara.

As a result, egg consumption in March could not be guaranteed. The chickens received a formula based on paddy rice, but now the original formula has been restored to 100%, the official said.

However, the recovery of production will not be immediate. It will take a period of 30 to 60 days for the hens to return to laying at their normal rate on their normal diet.

Montes de Oca added that this also depends on the age of the birds, since more than 70% of the company’s bird population is in its second or third productive cycle.

Meanwhile, the few eggs that are produced are destined for social consumption, including sectors such as health, education, medical diets and PAMI.

However, in Santa Clara, egg prices are exorbitant. Montes de Oca was categorical in stating that the company does not sell eggs to Non-State Management Forms (FGNE), but did not rule out that there was some diversion. “Some product may have been diverted from us, but it is not sold to any MSMEs,” she emphasized.

CUBAN MSMES BUY EGGS AND RESELL

Despite this, MSMEs can and do buy eggs abroad, for example, in Colombia, and then resell them in Cuba at “stratospheric prices,” denounces the state media report.

This situation has provoked criticism among residents of the province, who question the logic of innovating with bird feeding in such complex times and wonder where the cartons of eggs that are seen daily in Revolico at increasingly higher prices come from. high.

“From one justification to another… what if peas freeze, what if pumpkin flour, what if feeding chickens, what if lemons, what if crocodile or ostrich meat… well, this is the story of the Good Pipe,” wrote Omar Vega Rodríguez.