The chicken prices now in effect have rarely brought in enough revenue to cover labour, and need to be adjusted to make sure that they cover labour, as well as supplies and overhead, or chicken processing cannot continue. The Abattoir Society directors have reviewed the poultry operation very thoroughly and have concluded that a discount for quantity is not justified in a plant that does everything by hand and does not have to stop work every time a new batch is started, as the larger operators do.
We also see very clearly that larger birds take more time. The time taken is directly proportional to the weight of the birds, so the price should reflect that. Two months ago we floated the idea of a surcharge of $2 for chickens over a certain weight. In discussing this with clients and with other small poultry abattoirs we came to the conclusion that the average chicken weight for the batch should be used instead of the number of chickens over a certain weight, which is more work to record and a possible source of errors and disputes. Our scales can print out the total batch weight and we know exactly how many chickens were processed, so the average weight is one simple calculation.
Therefore on August 15th the new fee scale will be in effect:
- $6 if average chicken weight less than 3 kg
- $7 if average 3.0 to 3.5 kg
- $8 if average over 3.5 kg
This abattoir was built with tax dollars and donations from farmers and supporters of local food production. It is owned by this community and operated by a volunteer board that employs island workers. It cannot survive in business if it continues to make a loss, so these changes have to be made. As the volume of work increases (and it has already surpassed the estimates used in the planning stages) and beef and pork are added, the financial picture should become rosier. Until that happens we ask for your understanding and co-operation in making this project a success.