Snake and Eggs

By Mike Danna
Louisiana Farm Bureau Federation Public Relations Director

There’s an old saying about having to break a few eggs if you want to make an omelet.

There’s another old saying that goes, “a snake might not hurt you, but it’ll make you hurt yourself.” But more on the snakes later.

Our first day in country kicked off with a bus tour of Panama City on the way to the Melo Egg and Poultry Plant.  The plant was located about an hour outside of Panama City and the bus had to negotiate some narrow roadways shared by motorists in small cars who have no respect for a 10-ton bus.  Be that as it may, once we arrived we learned everything there is to know about the Panamanian egg.  And chicken for that matter.  The two tend to go hand in hand.

For starters, Melo has its hands, or wings as it were, in just about every Panamanian business imaginable.  From hotels, to tractor and vehicle dealerships, to fast food restaurants, its earnings are only second to the Panama Canal itself.

Amir Nilipour, the quality assurance manager for the egg processing plant, said the company processes 450,000 brown eggs a day, or about 13.5 million dozen eggs a year.  That’s 46 eggs per year for every man, woman and child in all of Panama.  And while Melo isn’t the only egg processor in the country it’s by far the largest.

According to Nilipour the company doesn’t like to break any of its 13.5 million dozen, but it’s inevitable.  “We strive for the best quality control,” he said.  “It doesn’t do us any good to provide all those eggs if the customer isn’t happy with the product.”

And when you look at the diet of most countries in Central America, Panama included, you’ll find that eggs, chicken and rice and beans make up the bulk of meals served here.

Poultry is the No. 1 meat protein consumed by most Panamanian consumers.  And when you consider that average household operates on a total budget of about $1,500 a month, you quickly understand why these “low end” meals are so popular.  In fact, Panamanians spend fully 35 percent of the annual income on food.  Juxtapose that with Americans spending only 9 percent of their disposable income on food you understand why we have a more varied and desirable diet.

We also visited the company’s chicken processing plant (no cameras allowed, so no video or photos), where they make chicken into everything from McNuggets for McDonald’s to little dinosaurs for Tyson’s kids’ meals.  (Parts is parts, as they say.)

Later in the afternoon we visited Old Towne, the original Panamanian downtown, constructed when the canal began construction in 1881.  Much of the architecture looks a lot like old New Orleans: French-colonial buildings, balconies with wrought iron and cobblestone streets.

A park in the heart of Old Towne features the remains of a fort that once defended the Bay of Panama, as well as the ever-popular tourist trap of street vendors selling everything from Panama hats, which originated in Ecuador, to jewelry to Mola art.  And then there were the snakes.

Joey Register found a vendor charging a nominal fee to have your photo taken wearing two constrictors.  After a few moments of negotiations and $5 later, Joey had his photograph taken with two snakes wrapped around his neck, followed by the snakes’ handler topping him off with an iguana on his head.

He tried to get his wife Lisa to join him in the photo but I wasn’t sure if she wasn’t more fearful of her and the snakes than for Joey and his proximity to the snakes.  You can see the photo in the gallery.

Tomorrow is our tour of the Panama Canal.  We plan to see both the Pacific and Atlantic Oceans inside of an hour.  Thanks to Jim Monroe for hammering on the Nikon D80 today and getting some great photos.

Until next time…