Turtle meat price soars

I made a quick scan of the various contributions made to this subject thread and saw nothing questioning the last 4 years of operation of the turtle farm at huge losses and why the turtle meat prices were never raised?

What was Joey doing? The operation was losing huge sums and he never thought of raising the prices on turtle meat?

The idea of not raising prices on turtle meat since the 1980s is amazing and irresponsible mismanagement of ther turtle farm in my opinion.

They weren't afraid to have top dollar pricing on the tourist attractions but I guess covering their turtle operation costs scared them.

Well i guess we are gonna have to start selling our Solja Crabs at a fair price!

Ok when is Mr. Bush going to step forward and act like the good person becaue isnt  that how it works i'm sorry Mr. Adams havent been on this job even a week and already can make a discission like this i as a caymanian love turtle meat for health reasons i dont eat it as often as before and no its nothen to do with my cholesterol becasue that is vey good. But let those that love it enjoy it no one is telling you or the next person what to eat but dont try and stop something that is tradition because how many of you that is writing can say my grandfather of my father went to mosquito Key to get turtles for my family to survie some of you probley dont even no where this place is cayman has lost too many traditions in the last couple of years and for this to happen when is this going to stop. And for the other nationalties that have something to say please think about what your national dish is its probley more  discusting  than what turtle is .

So...let me get this right. Jim is raising the cost of the meat to cover the costs of production - rather then lowering the cost to produce the meat to start with. 

What this means is that the public continue to pay over the odds to allow the sloppy management of the farm to continue. How come it did not cost so much to run prior to 2001? How come it was financially successful prior to 2001?

Why has there been mistake after mistake made, the costs of which are now being passed on to the public?

 "Highway robbery man"

Only God knows how this ridiculous increase will help save the Turtle Farm. Just put it up for sale and done, becasue I feel that's what they are really after. Nobody love turtle meat more than my grandmother, and if you hear her say that "they can keep it"...

You had better be on your guard now Tim... this increase will mean you are now essentially storing Living Gold at the farm.

It's really no secret that the turtles are currently flying through the air and over the farm's fences at night... this increase will now make the 'turtle meat black market' even more attractive to the night time turtle tossing bandits.

I dont get the whole turtle meat thing myself... one of the most disgusting things I have ever smelled cooking or had the displeasure of tasting... but hey, whatever floats your boat.

I LOVE Turtle meat, and i tried to eat it at least once a month as a special treat to myself, at that time turtle was 13 dollars a plate which was expensive, but well worth it.  Tradition can kiss my ass, if you think im going to pay 40-50 dollars for a plate of turtle stew..  This is the dumbest thing i have ever heard.. So you see, as much as i love turtle no one is going to pay these ridiculous prices for it, that being the end of the turtle farm and another big waste of money by the govt..  The only place you will be able to get turtle meat now is at the big fancy restaurants that will charge you an am and a leg for it, and in the end they are wasting their money, because they don't know CRAP about how to cook turle stew.. Dumbest idea yet TIM!!  I really hope you're not planning on running for politics too, i can assure you my friend majortiy of the turtle stew lovers out there (which are ALOT) probably wouldn't want to see your face ever again..

Why worry about the price of turtle meat, there is plenty iguanas running wild in peoples back yard, and they are free. 

They are vegetarians.  Dont let their smile change your mind. because if you can eat codfish you can eat iguanas  Ever seen cod fish head yet?   It look like dog head to me.

Turtle meat will give you  high colestral.  SO. Now that Caymanians cannot afford to buy it every week, then I would sugest instead of buying Turkey for christmas, put aside 15.00 every month and then you can aford to buy two box turtle meat for christmas day dinner.

Nuff hiccatees round the place, why unno stressing unno self out fa?Cayman still ga nuff bush with fresh water ponds,unno go hunt hiccatees and feast unno self on reptile meat...LMAO!!!!!

A Caymanian tradition??? Not in my family!! And YES, I 'born yah'. My grandma raised me and thank God, meat never touched her lips. She was healthy throughout her entire life, never had to visit a doctor n lived to a ripe old age. I remember seeing turtle cooking in a pot at a friend's house and almost puked when I saw that GREEN muck!! Nasty! Not in my belly!!
By the way - you afraid of cancer?? Turtles eat sea sponge - very carcinogenic! How ironic that we are trying to protect an endangered species, yet selling their meat!! 
Enjoy your cancer..........

*****Vegetarian and proud***** And healthy......total cholesterol: 90!!! Yeh baby.

I think this dramatic increase in cost of turtle meat will nothing except drive a lot of folk to take turtles from the wild.  At a huge cost to the wild turtles.  What is the Turtle Farm thinking??

Just like old times Timmy. You are doing the same here that you did at Cable & Wireless and that was to squeeze the maximum the Public would pay.

Well, like Cable & Wireless the public will decide when enough is enough.

And my prediction is that this move is going to hurt Boatswain.s Beach a lot more than it is going to help it. Such drastic moves are draconian in all shapes and forms and do not indicate good business sense. It would have been better to test the Market with smaller increases until you figured out what the Market could accept, rather than shoot it down with a single shot.

Six dollars a pound for Turtle bone is nothing short of madness.

Why is it sad for Caymanians to claim eating turtle as a part of our culture? Not trying to be confrontational but please support your comment. Is it sad that Inuit proudly eat seal, walrus, etc as a part of their culture? What about Laplanders eating reindeer? Scots eating haggis (part of which is animal product), etc. etc. 

The only difference is that turtle is endangered, and therefore protected - a fact that materialized comparatively recently in cultural terms (30 years). Do you expect cultural traditions to be eroded in such short time. Perhaps by the end of this century, history might record that "Caymanians USED to eat turtle as a part of their tradition" but why would you expect a part of our culture to 'stop on a dime?'

Perhaps you've visited or live here and observe other facets of our culture and traditions being eroded by outside influences, as occurs around the world. Yes, we're not immune to that, sadly. But that is exactly why we should proudly retain any part of our culture that we can. And as long as Caymanians can obtain turtle meat legally we should eat it. When that source ends then, by and large, that tradition will have faded, like others. Who knows, by then maybe the wild turtle population will have rebounded and CITES ban may be lifted/altered and we will go back to how it all started. If not, so be it; eating turtle will become a topic of history lessons. 

Meanwhile, there is nothing sad about trying to cling to one's culture and traditions. In every part of the world that effort is associated with national pride.  I happen to be a Caymanian who doesn't eat turtle (never have) but God am I proud of my culture - whatever little of it is left!

 We don’t need Caymanian stalwarts maintaining the “Cayman versus ex-pat” status quo; we need forward thinking Caymanians and ex-pats to step up and use Cayman’s diverse population to more effectively educate and motivate children – in and out of school – so they don’t end up stupid.

 hey you idiot Caymanians..if you even took Economics you would kno that as prices go up the quantity supplied also increases. So this will actually benefit you idiots