The Ashanti Regional Poultry Farmers Association has asked government to institute measures to help players in the sector have easy access to funds to sustain the local industry and reduce importation.
The Association says several poultry farms risk folding up without the right support, as some have been forced to lay off a number of their employees due to the impact of COVID-19.
These concerns have been expressed by almost the entire poultry industry across the country, especially with Egg producers complaining about incurring losses due to low patronage.
The Poultry farmers say their business has been on a decline for some time now. A visit by Citi Business News to the Osei Wiredu Farms at Asokwa earlier this year, showed that they incurred losses, as many birds died due to the harmattan season.
According to the leadership of the Ashanti Regional Poultry farmers’ Association, just when their businesses were returning to normalcy, then COVID-19 also came in with its associated problems. According to them, due to the impact of covid-19 restrictions, the hospitality and educational sectors, which form the chunk of their consumers, have cut down demand drastically.
Boris Baidoo, the Ashanti Regional Chairman of the Poultry Farmers’ Association, spoke to Citi Business News.
“If you look at the way hotels are being closed down and the way schools are closed which is not the doing of anybody, but of course the situation that we find ourselves in has called for it just to save lives. We have a lot of things that we need to talk about and that is, for instance, look at the poultry farming sector, we have a lot of eggs now standing. Look at what is happening in our industry, the industry was beginning to thrive. Covid-19 has spoilt so many plans”.
For Hariet Roberta Osei, Chief Executive Officer of Oserby Unique Ventures poultry farm, who was adjudged as the National Best Livestock Farmer in 2018, she has been compelled to lay off more than 60 percent of her workers due to the impact of covid-19.
“Before the Covid-19, we used to have about 53 workers, but now we have about 21. I have not gotten any facility from any bank, and there has not been any help from anywhere to support this huge farm. How can I continue to be taking care of people when I am losing? Even the Bank will advise you to take off some of them and so I feel it is pathetic. I am a mother. I am not comfortable sacking them. I don’t sack my workers like that but this covid-19 has forced us to do that.”
“Everyday, my feed cost alone for the birds is about eighteen thousand Ghana Cedis, so you can imagine and these eggs were locked down. They were stuck in the room and no customer was coming for them. We were just giving some out like gifts and we were giving some to the pigs but still, we were still having some here and we had no one to buy them. Finally, when the lock-down was lifted, customers were now complaining that our eggs were spoilt, and up till now, we have no facility, we have no help from any bank” she lamented.
The poultry farmers however believe covid-19 presents an opportunity for the country to strengthen the local poultry industry to reduce importation significantly which could create more jobs. They want deliberate policies to be put in place to support the industry.
“We cannot use the commercial rate to do farming. It is not possible. Now you go to the Bank and as a farmer, you are given probably 26 percent or 25 percent. That is not realistic as against somebody who is having 1 percent, 2 percent or 3 percent maximum abroad. That is the reason why they can ship goods down to us. The Minister of finance Ken Ofori-Atta is doing very well, but Ken I would say that please let’s have some sort of modification or amendment in our policies whereby Bank of Ghana and the Ministry of Finance can sit down on a common platform, let’s brainstorm and see what is best for our country. The Bank of Ghana should amend some of their policies for the banks to be able to lend further to people in agric, so at least we can get some food security so that we can also produce more,” Boris Baidoo stated.
“Government should help us. Our poultry value chain is very long and when you feed the bird, it creates more jobs or businesses for other people- feeding, processing and a whole lot. So if government should come to our aid. Government will have some peace of mind since we will help employ more people which will reduce the unemployment rate in the country,” Hariet indicated.
The poultry farmers are also calling on importers to invest in the local industry by collaborating with them to supply them (importers) with products.
“This is the time we need a strong collaboration between the local poultry farmers and the importers, so that at least import substitution would come in so that we can grow the chicken for them here gradually in phases to phase it off. We cannot start it all at once. But I keep saying we need to start something now,” Boris Baidoo added.
Boris Baidoo says if the COVID-19 situation persists for a while longer, and there is no government intervention, most poultry farmers would be completely out of business.
