Mr. Adam

File

The price of farmed turtle meat is tripling, which might make it a rarity in Cayman kitchens and restaurants.

The announcement came Friday afternoon in a press release issued on behalf of the Boatswain’s Beach/Cayman Turtle Farm Board of Directors and new Managing Director Tim Adam.

Effective today, the price of turtle stew will rise from CI$5.40 per pound to CI$16 per pound, while the price of the turtle steak will rise from CI$9 to CI$27 per pound.

The price of the turtle menavelin (small cuts of meat, fat, skin, heart, kidney and spleen) will rise from CI$4 to CI$12 per pound and the price of the turtle bone will rise from CI$2 to CI$6 per pound.

Premier McKeeva Bush said he was made aware of the price increase early Friday, but said he wasn’t going to get involved in the matter.

“I’ll leave the board and management to do what they have to do to make the Turtle Farm viable,” he said.

Turtle Farm Chairman of the Board Ken Hydes said that over the coming weeks and months the board will be making many difficult decisions about the operations at Boatswains Beach and the Turtle Farm. 

“I can assure the public that these decisions are being made with the long-term best interest of the shareholders, the Caymanian people,” he said.

“This is the reason the Board felt it was essential to bring in someone with Tim’s experience and capabilities.  We are extremely confident that he is the right man to turn things around at Boatswains Beach and he has the full support of the board and senior management team.”

A money loser

Mr. Adam said the price that was being charged for turtle meat was far below the cost to produce it, and the facility was constantly losing money on that portion of the business. 

As a result, Mr. Adam says the business now needs to raise the selling price on turtle meat to reflect the true cost of production and maintenance of the turtle meat products and the Cayman Turtle Farm facilities.

 “One of my first priorities after taking this job was to begin a process of closely examining every aspect of our operations to determine if they were being run efficiently and were commercially viable,” he said.  

“Looking closely at the farm operations, it was immediately clear that the price being charged for turtle meat would not allow the proper operation of the farm,” he continued.

“The supply of turtle meat in Cayman is in jeopardy and could dry up in the very near future without significant re-investment in the turtles, their feeding and care or even the farm facilities.”

Restaurants

The effects of the price increase will likely be seen in Cayman’s restaurants.

“Restaurants that sell meat products understand they are commodities that have prices that fluctuate,” said Mr. Adam.“The price will now reflect the value of the meat.”

He noted restaurants have become used to turtle being a certain price and make a decision on their pricing in relation to that.

Mr. Adam compared the price of lobster, which is sold with a heavy shell, to the higher turtle prices.

“You can get lobster virtually anywhere, but there is only one country where you can buy farmed green sea turtle meat, and that is right here in Cayman,” he said.

“If you look at the price lobster meat is selling for, by comparison, turtle meat is not such a big issue.”

Martin Richter, general manager of Grand Old House, a fine-dining restaurant that caters to a lot of tourists, will continue to offer turtle.

“Why not, if someone is willing to pay for it?” he said, adding that turtle really isn’t a big seller at the restaurant. “It’s more of a curiosity, but I think there will still be people who will want to try it.”

However, Mr. Richter said the new price for turtle steak might make the restaurant rethink the way it serves it.

“We might have to do smaller portions or an appetizer instead,” he said. “If we find the demand is not there, obviously we’ll have to drop it.”

William Watson owner of the Country and Western restaurant said he did not think customers would be interested in paying triple for turtle.

“It would be a bad thing for us, at that price that means you’d pay at least $20 for a plate of turtle meat,” he said.

“We have good customers for turtle meat now, but they probably won’t pay that much.”

Sustainability

Since Hurricane Michelle in 2001, when much of the Farm’s breeding herd disappeared and much of the breeding facility was rendered unusable, the farm has struggled to improve its breeding programme and reverse the issue of declining turtle stock. 

Mr Adam emphasized that setting a reasonable pricing structure was the first step in being able to properly re-invest in the farm and reverse this trend.

He said the pricing is based on analysis done on the cost to produce the meat products weighted to the proportion of each kind of meat a turtle produces, and the prices rounded up or down to the nearest dollar for simplicity.

Although the decision is bound to be unpopular with some people, Mr. Adam said it was an absolutely essential move for the operation to make in order to remain sustainable.

“We have a responsibility to ensure that future generations of Caymanians can enjoy the traditions of our islands and turtles are an important part of that,” he said.

Theft and poaching

Department of Environment Director Gina Ebanks-Petrie said putting the price up may cause people to think twice about buying turtle meat as frequently as they do.

“An increase in price on the demand side has the potential to buy some time for the farm to address the very serious issue of the low hatching rates and survival of the hatchlings,” she said.

“These two issues have been occurring for some time, and solutions to the problem need to be found if the farm is to be sustainable in the long term.”

Responding to the concern that an increase in price may lead to thefts of turtles from the farm, Mr. Adam said security was definitely a concern.

“We certainly take security at the farm quite seriously. Given that the value of the turtles and harvested meat has gone up, we have taken that into consideration. Of course, we hope theft is not the response we get,” he said.

Ms Ebanks-Petrie said an increase in the price of farmed turtle would be a concern for the Department as it might lead to the potential increase in the illegal taking of turtles.  Both Mr. Adam and Premier Bush are counting on the Department of Environment to combat an increase in poaching.

 “Turtle meat is still available for sale,” Mr. Adam said. “We hope and trust the authorities responsible for poaching will respond to this decision accordingly.”

Mr. Bush agreed.

 “If that is so, and I’m not sure it will be, the Department of Environment will have to do their job.”

Mrs. Ebanks-Petrie said the Department’s enforcement team will certainly have to keep a very vigilant eye out for such activity.

 “However these days the team is already stretched,” she said.

Compass journalist Alan Markoff also contributed to this article.