Poultry farmers in Ghana want the government to reduce imported chicken

According to the association, this is to help save the local poultry industry.

The Association explained that Ghanaians would often opt for imported chicken over locally produced broilers. They argued that a deliberate attempt to reduce the import will grow the local industry.

Statistics from agricinghana.com, domestic consumption of poultry is has gone up to 13.9% per year in Ghana.

Meanwhile, the local production of poultry is growing at a rate of 14.1%. However, this is dominated by layers and not broilers.

The Association says this means there is an annual consumption of 230,000 tons of poultry. However, only 5% is produced locally.

Poultry is on almost every meal Ghanaians eat. But during Christmas, the consumption goes high which translates to more money for those in the industry.

However, according to the GAFPA, the high imports are taken a toll on their businesses, since they incur losses when Ghanaians purchase imported frozen chicken.

The Vice President of the Association, Michael Ampem, said even though the government claims it has reduced chicken imports they are yet to feel the impact.

“Those of us who’re into broilers, we are dealing with the imported broilers, and we’re looking at ways to bring the importation down. I am sure a lot of us have heard the rice farmers fighting to get rice imports banned, and we will also be glad as poultry farmers to have imported chicken if not totally banned, reduced to a level where we will be competitive”.

“This year Maize is doing well because of some of the policies put in by the government. The Planting for Food and Jobs is helping. However, that’s not the end of the day because there are other things that go into the production of our feed. We have the soya, we have the wheat brand, and we have the other things, and those ones are not necessarily coming down, so as an Association we are not able to significantly bring down the prices of our feed”.

GAFPA argued that when the government reduces importation it will have an impact on job creation.