Ahead of the festive season, there are some businesses that seriously position themselves for the season to cash-in before it goes away. One of such groups is those who deal in poultry products.
Chicken and other poultry products are undoubtedly global delicacies that many cannot forgo during the yuletide.
According to statistics from agricinghana.com, domestic consumption of poultry is increasing rapidly, hitting 13.9 percent per year in Ghana.
While the local production of poultry is growing at a rate of 14.1 percent, this is dominated by “layers” rather than “broilers.”
The Poultry Farmers Association of Ghana says this translates into an annual consumption of 230,000 tons of poultry of which only about five to ten percent is produced locally.
Poultry is literally an everyday meal. But for festivities like Christmas, they’re special because consumption really goes high, which means more money for those in the industry.
Job Baba, who has sold these birds for 15 years to sustain his family, currently sells live birds at the Osu Day Market in Accra.
Job deals in all kinds of poultry. According to him, his sales are determined by the season. Some of the birds he sells include broilers, layers, cockerels, guinea fowls and turkey.
But Job says the market has been quite slow for the past five months.
He says his customers have reduced the number of birds they buy from him, as they complain of economic hardship.
“For about five months now the market is low. Some customers who were buying more have now reduced it saying there is no money in the system. For the turkey people don’t buy it on a regular day. They only buy during Christmas time. During Christmas we can sell about ten a day. One can go for about Ghc400.
He says this has forced him to reduce the prices of his birds, resulting in losses. He says he barely makes profit in recent times.
Job says he cannot reduce the prices further even though some customers still complain that the cost is too high.
He attributes the challenges in the industry to the high cost of feed.
This notwithstanding, Job says he is looking forward to the Christmas season as sales will most likely boom around that period.