The price of animal feed is set to go up by as much as 21 per cent from next Monday, with the island’s lead manufacturer of poultry and livestock feed saying it can no longer stick to its agreement to hold off increases until next January.The increase was reportedly communicated to the Barbados Agricultural Society (BAS) by Pinnacle Feeds which stated that the price compact that the private sector signed with the government in July this year has had a significant impact on the company’s financial performance and it was impossible to delay the hike.The price increases will range from six to 21 per cent.Under the compact, the feed supplier had committed to not increasing animal feed prices for the next six months, unless an extraordinary event occurred.However, in correspondence to the BAS, it said it had no choice but to break from the compact at this time, given its massive reduction in profits and capital.The company said breaking the agreement “will enable the company to partially offset the erosion of capital since the price compact took effect”.
