According to Weir from Barbados’ end, “The project really is designed for us to be able to do what we can here in Barbados – that’s to have a million head of Black Belly Sheep and then do a slaughtering programme where we use the hide for leather craft and the meat for speciality cuts for the tourism industry and for local consumption.”
Guyana received the first flock of 132 sheep from Barbados in August last year, which consisted of 112 ewes and 20 rams. The country agreed to send 1,000 sheep to Guyana.
President Irfaan Ali on March 27 launched the US$3 million black belly sheep project in Region Five. Since the launch several communities in the region, particularly those seen as Opposition strongholds, have complained of being excluded.
The breed is primarily raised for meat and other high-demand by-products and forms part of the CARICOM aim to reduce the region’s food import bill by 25 percent by 2025. Over the period 2018-2020, the CARICOM food import bill was US$13.76 billion or approximately 5% of Gross Domestic Product (GDP).
