#larrymccormack

Kore Pwodiksyon Nasyonal la!

Ayiti

“Support national production,” is the message on Steve Pierre’s shirt. Pierre manages the cold room at Haiti Broilers chicken production operation in Lafiteau, where products are labeled with the slogan “Fierté d'Haiti” or “Haiti’s Pride.” Since expanding to Haiti in 2011, the Jamaican company employs more than 200 Haitians.

National agricultural production took a massive hit in Haiti in the mid-1990s, when the Haitian government, under pressure from the U.S. and the International Monetary Fund, dramatically lowered its import tariffs. The country has yet to recover.

Rice production plummeted and the burgeoning chicken market collapsed as Haiti became a country of imports.

The imported chicken is sold in the form of frozen parts. The U.S. consumers buy the white meat, which covers the cost of the bird, and the dark meat—the drums, the feet, the thighs—is shipped to Haiti.

“They dump it over here,” said Larry Alexander, a Haiti Broilers operator.

To increase production, the tariff will have to be increased, a viewpoint shared by those at every level of production. In the meantime, the smallholder chicken farmers and those at Haiti Broilers seek to expand incrementally, pushing quality over cost to their buyers.

Image and caption by Jamie McGee. Haiti, 2016.

Rosette Valmor lost her husband in the 2010 earthquake that destroyed their home. Without his income, she has been unable to provide for her family of seven children, relying on help from others in her community. For the past nine months she has become a chicken farmer through the KORE Foundation that provides loans and coops to its farmers.

Like most chicken farmers working with Kore, Valmor lacks reading and writing skills and she has struggled to master the process through which she makes a small profit as she pays off her loan. She has paid for a relative’s funeral with the proceeds instead and some birds have died. She said she is hopeful that as she goes through the program she will be able to increase her earnings.   

Image by Larry McCormack and caption by Jamie McGee. Haiti, 2016.

The Marriott Port-au-Prince Hotel has been operating for more than a year, one of three major hotels to emerge in the aftermath of the 2010 earthquake. Funded by a $45 million investment from Digicel, The Marriott employs 165 people, 95 percent of whom are Haitian. Its 175 rooms host NGOs, business officials, visiting Haitian-Americans, mission groups, tourists and journalists, and It began turning a profit in its first year.

Still, business has suffered in recent weeks because of political turmoil surrounding Haiti's presidential elections. Marketing manager Stephanie Gibson said the hotel has also seen a decline as those foreign officials frequenting the hotel hand the reins to locals and the presence of NGOs subsides. And with the new Royal Oasis, the new Best Western Premier and the expansion of two locally owned luxury hotels, supply is abundant.

“It would be ideal if there were not so many rooms in the market,” she said. “It’s healthy competition.”

Image by Larry McCormack and caption by Jamie McGee. Haiti, 2016.