Senator Honourable Dr. James Fletcher has allayed the concerns of Opposition senators, that the Vieux Fort based Meat Processing Facility will now produce broilers - chickens bred specifically for their meat - resulting in cost over runs.

The minister corrected the erroneous statement during the Senate debate on the 2014/15 Appropriations Bill. International food safety precautions do not allow meats from differing animal species to be processed in the same facility due to the likelihood of cross-contamination.
 

"Anyone who knows anything about meat processing, knows that you cannot process broilers together with ruminants. You cannot do it. You cannot do it on a top floor, in a basement, anywhere. So for Senator Joseph to stand up in the Senate and try to mislead the people of Saint Lucia by saying the reason there are cost over runs with the meat processing facility is because this government has decided it will process broilers...he knows that is not true."

Senator Fletcher further elaborated by producing documentaion which speaks to the root cause of the cost over runs on the abattoir facility. In a 2009 letter to the previous Minister for Agriculture, former Taiwan Ambassador Tom Chou, cautioned the then government about several construction and design aspects of the project.

"If its construction at this stage does not meet the standards or follow the drawings, the structure may very likely crack, deflect or even collapse at a certain point in time. That is the risk we cannot afford to take or accept," Dr. Fletcher quoted from the correspondence. 

To avoid the undesirable consequences the original Taiwanese designer, advised the government at the time to immediately suspend the Meat Processing Facility project, and to take action to address the proven major defects.
 

Dr. Fletcher said his government found all of the recommendations for changes to the design of the MPF in train for action and urged senators to be a little "less economical with the truth."
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