The International Competitiveness of the Table Egg Industry of Trinidad and Tobago

The research undertaken was four-fold. First, to investigate whether government policy provides protection and by extension, incentives for the local table egg farmers to remain in production. To do so, EPC's for all commercial farms in the industry were estimated to arrive at a weighted or industry EPC. The study also investigated whether the local tables egg industry had a comparative advantage or was efficient in the production of table egg. The Domestic Resource Cost (DRC) coefficient was used as a proxy of efficiency and comparative advantage. DRC's were calculated for the twenty-three farms. Having established that the industry was competitive, a sensitivity analysis was conducted to determine the extent to which feed costs, the major production cost can be increased in order to reverse the competitive position of the industry. A regression model, utilizing the technique of Ordinary Least Squares (OLS), was constructed to determine weather the various components of production costs, including feed, labour, utilities, land, chick, egg boxes, medication were significant in determining efficiency and comparative advantage in the table egg industry. Results of the study showed that table egg producers are protected from imports through various instruments of government policy. Producers also had a comparative advantage in producing table eggs. The level of comparative advantage was highest among small producers, followed by medium and large producers. The sensitivity analysis however showed that a small increase in feed cost could reverse the competitive position of the industry. The analysis also concluded that feed cost, as opposed to domestic resources, had the greatest potential for maintaining competitiveness in the industry.