Save poultry industry from collapse - Poultry farmers cry out

The Ghana National Association of Poultry Farmers (GNAPF) has bemoaned the collapse of the poultry industry.

Victor Oppong Adjei, chairman of the association, has made a passionate call to the government and other stakeholders to intervene in the poultry industry to prevent its total collapse.

According to him, unfair competition from importers of chicken has deprived the country of over one million jobs along the value chain.

In addition to that, Mr. Adjei further said that the poultry industry, which recorded an annual growth of 20 per cent as of 1970, had declined drastically to the point that the country could barely produce one per cent of the total imports of chicken.

He added that the farmers were not getting the needed support from the government, unlike other countries where exporters were enjoying subsidies from their governments. Making reference to EU data on chicken exports, he said the country imported 683,709 tonnes of frozen chicken in 2021 from Brazil, the US and the EU, translating into 570 million birds which is collapsing the local poultry industry.

"If we take it that one bird even sells at a dollar, it means about $600m was used to import chicken in 2021. Some of our poultry farmers have even lost their lives because of what we are going through.

“…we, therefore, want to use this platform to passionately appeal to the government, the Council of State, the Ghana International Trade Commission (GITC) and other key stakeholders to act urgently to save this industry," he said.

In a Graphic.com.gh report, Mr Adjei was speaking at the maiden national conference of the GITC in Accra yesterday, on the theme: “GITC; Enhancing the competitiveness of the domestic industry”

Frank Agyekum, the GITC's executive secretary, on the other hand, promised that after the African Continental Free Trade Agreement (AfCFTA) went into effect, the commission would uphold its duty to see that domestic sectors benefited from the deal.

AM/BOG