aint going to be a merry Xmas fi most in Ja

[evanovitch]

Industry Minister Karl Samuda is to meet with food retailers on Tuesday as the 10 day ultimatum for them to reduce prices expires on Monday.

Mr. Samuda has summoned retailers as well as distributors to the meeting <span style="font-weight: bold">after complaints that they have not decreased prices on certain goods despite price reductions on the world market. </span>
According to the Minister, at Tuesday's meeting, he will be armed with new data on production costs when he meets with the retailers.

&quot;We're going to do a thorough review of the situation to determine precisely where we are at this stage and to look at the most recent surveys to indicate the movement in prices and see exactly where we go from there.&quot;

The Consumer Affairs Commission recently expressed concern about what it said is a growing trend among retailers who keep prices static despite decreases in the cost of their inputs.

<span style="font-weight: bold">Dollar's slide impacting prices - chicken price could go up again </span>

And one of the country's major suppliers of chicken meat says while its prices have started to inch down there could a reversal in the wake of the latest sharp decline in the value of the Jamaican dollar.

Caribbean Broilers is keeping a close watch on the movement of the local currency which it says is having a major impact on its price list.

Dr. Keith Amiel Corporate Affairs Manager at Caribbean Broilers says while the price of chicken feed has been going down, other areas of the company's operations are being negatively affected by the sliding dollar.

[evanovitch]

mi hope we no import dis from Ireland

<span style="font-weight: bold">Police investigate source of Ireland's dioxin-tainted pork - </span>


Dublin - Japan, Singapore and South Korea Monday suspended the import and sale of all Irish pork products as Irish police investigated the contamination of Irish pork with dioxins. <span style="font-weight: bold">Pork products tainted with dioxins were exported to as many as 25 different countries from Ireland</span>, the Food and Safety Agency of Ireland (FSAI) reported Monday, following the government's recall of pork products dating back to September 1.

Britain, which receives 40 per cent of Irish pork exports, has recalled all Irish pork from its supermarket shelves and Northern Ireland has taken the same precaution.

According to estimates by the Irish authorities, around 100,000 pigs will have to be culled as a result of the scandal, which is the worst to hit Ireland since the BSE crisis.

Food valued at around 125 million euro (159 million dollars) will have to be destroyed in Ireland and abroad. Irish pork exports are worth 250 million euros annually.

The recall followed the discovery in pork of potentially dangerous dioxins, polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs), which were initially traced to an unnamed meat plant in the republic.

The investigation found contaminated pork with dioxin levels of 80 to 200 times above the safety limits.

The dioxins have been traced to feed supplied from a County Carlow food recycling plant, 100 kilometres south of Dublin, Irish media reported.

The company at the centre of the pork contamination, Millstream Power Recycling Limited, has denied that industrial oil was used in the animal feed.

A spokesman told Ireland's national broadcaster RTE that oil was used to power machinery that processes the feed, but he added that he did not know yet if this could be the source of the contamination.

Police investigations Monday were continuing at 10 pig farms and 38 beef farms. The contamination is likely to have a severe impact on the 7-billion-euros Irish food industry.

Contaminated feed from Millstream Recycling has also been supplied to nine farms in Northern Ireland which now have been restricted.

According to the FSAI report, the tainted meat has already been detected in the Netherlands, France and Belgium.

[jah_yout]

Re: mi hope we no import dis from Ireland

mi nah stop talk it...
jamaica nah prosper again until dem know demself;

time fi di mental slavery ting done now