The Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Blue and Green Economy signed a contract with local firm, Regional Contractors Inc., on Monday for the reconstruction of the National Abattoir.
The contract is valued at EC$5,004,133.03 and underscores the government’s commitment to expanding the agri-food system through investments in key agricultural infrastructure, aimed at improving food safety standards and increasing production.
The facility which is located in Layou was severely damaged by Hurricane Maria in September 2017.
“I am very happy to be here to witness yet another major intervention in our efforts to bolster agricultural production in Dominica and to assure us of our food security and our ability to reduce our food import bill,” Prime Minister Roosevelt Skerrit said while addressing the contract signing ceremony. “And to ensure that we provide fresh meat to our population.”
He continued, “This is a major investment, 5 million dollars in terms of construction, and another 1.4 million dollars in terms of additional equipment for the abattoir, so we are talking about 6.4 million dollars.”
According to Skerrit, oftentimes it is said nothing is done in agriculture.
“The unfortunate thing is that sometimes the entire Ministry of Agriculture is quiet and silent on this and they don’t give the facts to the people…,” he stated. “But the reality is agriculture has received and continues to receive major injection of funds.”
He added that 7.3 million dollars of grants was used to procure materials for persons in the poultry and pork sub-sector.
“And we are not even talking about fisheries, fisheries is a separate entity all to itself.”
Meanwhile, Agriculture Minister Roland Royer stated that currently the activities at the national abattoir are suspended to facilitate reconstruction works and the plant construction.
He pointed out that the workers at the abattoir are reassigned to other activities within the ministry and special arrangements are being finalized with the owner of a private abattoir to purchase the birds from farmers who would normally produce for the national abattoir.
“It also provides the ministry with the opportunity to build [the] capacity of our local producers to do their own processing,” Royer explained.
Furthermore, he stated that the ministry received proposals from seven firms during the procurement process.
“Of those seven firms, Regional Contractors were the most competitive bidder and as a result was awarded the contract in the sum of five million four thousand, one hundred and thirty-three dollars and three cents,” Royer said.
He revealed that the project is expected to last 12 months and be executed in two phases.
“Phase 1 will see the finalization of designs, with all specification and technical documents, and phase 2 will be the actual construction to be implemented within 9 months,” Royer revealed.
Testing of the abattoir in Layou Park began in 2015.
On January 23, 2017, Johnson Drigo, who was then agriculture minister, said during the testing of the abattoir that 4,000 birds and 250 pigs would be slaughtered at the facility until it was tested to the maximum.
The expected capacity output of the facility at the time was 1,000 birds per hour and 50 pigs per day.
Royer revealed that upon completion the new National Abattoir will have the capacity to process 4000 birds and 50 pigs per day.
…so… another bail out to cover up Michael Etienne and Dr. Toussaint’s disaster house?…
That money being used could have fixed the debt they put farmers in by lying about production capacity while the machines were not even functioning. Always a “Redo, redo, redo” can we not hire competent people from another land with this money? Maybe put this money into farmers? Another failed structure built to suit the two previously mentioned con artists? So. Much. Waste. In. Dominica. It’s not natural disaster we have to survive it’s the absence of natural selection and increasing nepotism. Dr. Toussaint influences the ministry, sells the feed, has the most to gain from this. Michael Etienne slithers about protected by the shadows of his PM buddy.
So many resources are wasted while ministry heads play catch up and get raises. Actively holding back citizens just to seem productive. A snake eating it’s tail. When does it end? Best to join the govt boys club gang if you want to live.
The answer to your question Simelda is yes.Layou park is one of the nicest place to drink a bush rum.Maybe a BBQ from on of Snappy pigs.Really they need to rebuild that road as soon as possible.For those who don’t know Layou park is one of the coolest places in Dominica.
Will the Layou road leading to the abbatoir be fixed as well? Reconstructing the abbatoir with deplorable road conditions defeats the purpose.
No one seems to have considered the condition of the section of road on which the abattoir is situated. The section between the Warner junction and Pont Casse was resurfaced a few years ago and the section between where the west coast road crosses the Layou River up to the glo cho bridge was completed last year. The section in between, however, is in a disgraceful state of repair, after Gadakan’s heavy vehicles have for several years been moving daily from their Layou River depot to the Castle Bruce road project, leaving this narrow winding section of road broken, pot-holed and almost unusable. This surely has played a significant role in the under use of the abattoir.
it is stated that 4000 birds can be process and 50 pigs per day
meaning that in 24 days 96000 fowls and 1200 pigs can be processed and in 1 year 1,152,000 fowls and 14400 pigs
in order for that investment to be worth while farmers must produce qty needed on a daily/monthly and yearly basis if this is not the case then we will have another coffee plant at 1 mile in possie
hope everything is being put in place to encourage farmers to produce qty needed
Good luck in this undertaking, but really there is no need to throw the entire Ministry of Agriculture ” under the bus “. It was you who said YEARS AGO to the Domican public ” if not passeports then what ?”.
Now I would like to think that in the meantime farmers have received materials that would enable them to increase their poultry, pig, goats cattle and rabbit output so that on completion of the abbatoir, the people would have the region’s meat sufficiency and food security that you so eloquently spoke to.
In other words, things would run seamlessly. I really hope we can get this one right.
Sounds good to me. However when completed and in operation, the habit of the cabalists and their biza-wells getting as much free meat as they can must cease. One said Monel liked cow meat but apparently no other Dcan liked free abattoir meat than him
. we will be monitoring the operations closely for such greedy behavior.
More and more i am convinced that Dominica is a clown show. And these FOOLS are in charge. What happened to the one in Layou? Why didnt we build it proper the first time. How much of our money and “aid” are we just going to waste over and over again just doing mediocre stuff that we love to call “state of the art”, to then go back to the drawing board years later to do it all over again?
What is wrong with the existing “abattoir” that another one has to be built?
Did you read the above story before making your comment, asking “what is wrong with the existing “abattoir that another one has to be built,” Didn’t you see the word RECONSTRUCTION, the facility which is located in Layou was severely damaged by Hurricane Maria in September 2017. The Abattoir was a gift from Venezuela, it was destroyed by the act of a Hurricane, why ask such silly question, why they didn’t we build it properly the first time. Why you are making such criticism of the Government here is something to read https://thevoiceslu.com/2018/11/opposition-fears-abattoir-demolition-will-affect-taiwan-ties/
Does that mean that the Layou Road between the Warner junction and the York Valley bridge will be finally be repaired? We folks around Layou Park have been suffering from the inexcusable state of that section of the road since TS Erika, and the constant passage of big trucks transporting material from the west to the east coast continues to destroy what remains.