Island of Nevis Bans Pork Imports

Charlestown, Nevis
May 14, 2008

A top official in the Department of Agriculture on Nevis said, that at present, the island was enjoying self sufficiency in the area of pork production and a ban had been placed on importation.

In a recent interview with the Department of Information, Director of Agriculture on Nevis Dr. Kelvin Daly said that farmers were enjoying the benefits from the ban and had begun to see returns on their investments.

“We have a ban in place right now on pork so all our local pork is on the market and the farmers are very happy about that for the first time in decades anybody has banned pork. We [Department of Agriculture] felt it was time because when we did the analysis of the pork characteristics, it is very lean, very clean, very up to speed and better than any thing you can import.

“So we felt it was about time that we had sufficient quality meat on the market to put a ban in place and it has worked wonderfully the vendors are not complaining, the farmers are very happy that they are getting their animals sold because as you realise, the feed prices are quite high and again the government here has subsidised feed prices substantially,” he said.