An elaborate farming project, owned by Mr. Quincy Gumbs & family, at the southern end of the Copse, East End, is a growing, busy and interesting enterprise. It is a must see for all persons seeking to know some of the diverse ways in which individuals or groups can thoughtfully and successfully contribute to personal or community development, notwithstanding the hard work and commitment it requires.
By any comparison, the Gumbs family’s project, called “Ankor Poultry & Meats Farm”, is the biggest and most organised such enterprise in Anguilla, with rapid turnover, excellent patronage and encouraging reviews.
“Our short-term plan is to supply the local market, and at present we are supplying J W Proctors, Albert Lake’s Supermarket, Ashley’s Supermarket, Unique Trading, Malliouhana Hotel, and Jedd’s Restaurant,” Mr. Gumbs explained. “We also have enquiries from several other restaurants, and we also supply all of Tasty’s goat meat. Once we have supplied Anguilla, we want to start looking regionally and hopefully internationally. It is a long term project and a big investment.”
Asked about the public’s response to his poultry and meats, Mr. Gumbs responded: “We are sold out every week. All our production goes. There is literally nothing left. We have had great reviews. I think the person who has done us the greatest service in this regard was Haydn Hughes. He came on the farm one day and he sent it viral via the internet. There has been a tremendous response. People from everywhere came to the farm to see what it is like. They rushed to the supermarkets and bought up the chicken. It just went all over. I am really, really pleased with the response from the public.
“Last week we did over 300 chickens and all were sold within the course of the week. A lady walked up to me in church one Sunday morning and told me: ‘You have me hooked on this chicken. I have to be eating it all the time. It is really good.’ We hear that all the time, and are grateful that we are producing a product that the public enjoys.”
Mr. Gumbs was asked about numbers of poultry and livestock on the family’s farm. “We have in excess of 5,000 chickens at any one time,” he disclosed. “Right now, we are in excess of over 400 ducks. We are pretty close to having 60 or 70 geese. We have all the geese below the number one species. The number one was just too expensive. It was costing us about 75 dollars a chicken. We are down on our turkey numbers and are working on boosting our figures for Thanksgiving and Christmas. That order is supposed to be in on August 16. We also have 200 guinea bird chickens and several adults as well. In addition, we have some pheasants. We are allowing them to go wild because we are also interested in developing the wild stock around the farm.
“We order our chickens out of Miami and we have a standard monthly order. It comes in like every three weeks. If we need to increase the production, we make the order every two weeks. Our minimum order is 1500. The biggest order we have had was just yesterday when we brought in just over 2700 chickens and 200 guinea birds. We order our turkeys from Georgia via Florida; and our ducks and geese are ordered from California. It is exciting to see that your rear these birds from babies and all of a sudden they mushroom. Look at the yard. It is covered with ducks. Just the other day they were babies. We only brought them in six weeks ago.”
Questioned about standards, Mr. Gumbs replied: “The biggest concern is not just what the Department of Agriculture in Anguilla requires from us. We have to meet a very stringent standard of regulations in St. Maarten, our major point of entry. Our imports are also approved by the US Department of Agriculture export section, and we have to submit the certificates to St. Maarten in order to get our supplies through that port. In the interest of public information, I should say that we are highly supervised by the Public Health Department in Anguilla which does inspections at will. All in all, we have to meet the requirements of both St. Maarten and Anguilla.”
About the livestock, Mr. Gumbs said: “We have a number of Dorper Sheep to begin with. That sheep originated from South Africa and we are developing them for our farm. We have a number of Boer and Nubian goats and, even though we had some significant challenges, with these goats, we are continuing to invest in them and to develop them. Our aim is to have the world’s best meat goat which is the Kalahari Red which also originates out of South Africa. We are doing our best to have the embryos brought to Anguilla and implanted in our goats. Hopefully, we will have that done within the course of next year.
“One can imagine you are getting some expert advice,” The Anguillian newspaper proposed to Mr. Gumbs.
“Yes, we are getting advice from some of the best scientists and vets around the world as it relates to the development of our sheep and goats,” he affirmed. “We also have some very good support from Morris Hatchery on the chickens. They have a very good network of support because they are the world’s largest suppliers of chickens. We are just fortunate to have them as our suppliers and they give us some very good support.”
“Apart from any business or economic benefit, your project appears to bring a lot of pleasure to you,” Mr. Gumbs was told by the newspaper.
“Certainly,” he agreed. “My children do most of the work at the Fairplay office. This is my retirement project and I am enjoying every bit of it. I said to somebody the other day: ‘The great thing is that the sheep, goats, ducks, turkeys and guinea birds don’t talk back to you. They make a lot of noise but it is not against you.’ I spend a lot of time in the evenings with them and it is really therapeutic.
“As you can see, my wife, Mrs. Sonia Gumbs, is inside the processing area. My oldest son and one of my brothers are there. We have a knack for family unity in business, and thank God that it has now gone on to this part of our business – and I am grateful for their support.”
Inside the processing area, there is great emphasis on hygiene and cleanliness.
Attention is even carefully paid to the dress code. The poultry and goat products are well-separated, packaged, wrapped, and stamped with the Ankor Poultry & Meats labels. The products are then ready for delivery to the waiting retail outlets. It is a business enterprise everybody should visit, appreciate and support.
