Quality Poultry Products

Quality Poultry Products THE LEADER IN BELIZE Q uality Poultry Products (QPP) is a co-op owned, chicken producing company, located in the community of Spanish Lookout in the Cayo District of Belize. It was originally founded by Mennonite cultivators who came to Belize in the 1950s from Mexico and whose roots go back to Canada and Rus- sia. “The initial founders were my uncle and my dad, who bought shares a few years in,” says QPP’s General Manager, Raymond Barkman. “They started raising chickens in the late ‘60s. At the time, they were the only chicken produc- ing company in Belize.” Because much of the country’s poultry was still being imported from the United States, Bark- man says that the brothers began helping all the other chicken farmers who came along later so that, one day, Belize could become self-sufficient in poultry. “They worked together as a group,” he relates. “No- body ever dreamed that we would become self-sufficient. But they advanced the poultry business very quickly. And now there is no importation of chicken.” Quality Poultry Products became an official company in 1975. Today, it has relationships with more than 136 local broiler farmers, and has 378, 401 employees who slaughter and process about 30,000 birds a day from a stock of over a million. QPP also raises and processes turkeys from live poults it imports from abroad. The company sells its products in 13 of its own retail/wholesale outlets in various parts of the country including Spanish Lookout, Belize City, San Pedro, Belmopan, Dangriga, Orange Walk, Corozal, and Punta Gorda. In addition, Qual- ity Chicken can be found in all major Belizean food supermarkets, restaurants (including the company’s own), hotels, educational institutions serving Beliz- ean food, and convenience stores. Using a fleet of 42 re- frigerated trucks AT A GLANCE QUALITY POULTRY PRODUCTS WHAT: A cooperative poultry processing company WHERE: Spanish Lookout, Belize WEBSITE: www.qualitypoultryproducts.com