Local players in Ghana’s poultry industry have reiterated calls on the government to consider placing a cap in the volumes of imported poultry products into the country.
According to the Poultry Farmers Association of Ghana, they will be able to increase production with the requisite support from the government to meet the shortfall that would be created by a deliberate reduction in imports.
Available statistics from agricinghana.com show that in Ghana, domestic consumption of poultry is increasing rapidly at roughly 13.9 percent per year.
While the local production is growing at a rate of 14.1 percent, this poultry 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.
In 2017, local poultry farmers criticized government for granting tax cuts to frozen chicken importers which they said created unfair competition in the industry.
A year later, the Ministry of Food and Agriculture announced that it has restricted the importation of frozen poultry products.
The Association, however, believes this is not enough. It wants the government to limit the importation of poultry to 150,000 tons. They are confident they will be able to fill in the gap and with the needed support from government to completely stop the importation of the product completely.
Vice President of the Greater Accra Poultry Farmers Association, Michael Nyarko Ampem, speaking to Citi Business News argued that if the importation is reduced to a certain quantity, then naturally people will fill the space because there will be a vacuum and that vacuum will be filled.
“I’ll use an example that Export Promotion used some years back when they wanted to promote the exportation of yam. What happened was that they said there weren’t enough yams; but they created a market for the export of yam and within a short time people started cultivating yam, and today we see people by the roadside selling yam.
So, my argument is that if the government gives us space by limiting the number of imported birds that come in; then it’s easier for people to fill in, they will find the money themselves and then fill in the gap,” he added.