The Ghana National Poultry Farmers Association are calling on Ghanaians to patronize locally produced chicken, to sustain their business which has adversely been affected by the growing importation of frozen chicken.
According to the Association, the development is putting them out of business and pleads with Ghanaians to have taste for domestic poultry products as well.
Statistics indicate that about 80 percent of frozen chickens are exported into Ghana annually.
Due to this, the Association has launched a program dubbed ‘’eat Ghana Chicken,’’ in Accra, to catch the attention of Ghanaians to consume locally produced chicken.
The National President Mr. Victor Oppong Agyei note that the time has come for Ghanaians to patronize the domestic broilers and layers for meat and egg production, also to sustain the local economy than always injecting capital into other economies.
The 2017 Ghana Poultry Report Annual estimates that Ghana’s 2017 broiler meat production will reach 35,000 tons, supplying less than 25 percent of demand. Imports are expected to increase by 14,000 tons to 158,000 tons due to insufficient domestic supply and rising demand.
It is observed that consumers in the urban areas prefer imported frozen chicken to that of the domestic chicken, with reason that, the imported frozen chickens are relatively cheaper as compared to the domestic one.
Consumption for imported frozen is on high demand at the restaurants, hotels and fast food joints as compared to the domestic one.
The imported chicken are sold between GH¢12 per kilograms while the domestic chickens sell at GH¢50 per kilograms.
Oppong Agyei said the domestic chicken is of high quality and taste better as compared to the frozen chicken which is stocked for several months and sometimes a year before being imported into the country.
Speaking in an interview with gardjagh.org, he said they would like the government to look at the employment opportunities the industry stands to offer should they have the sufficient producing power in the coming years.
He, therefore, called for tax incentive packages to enable the poultry producers to be able to compete with their counterparts in the developed countries.
The chairman has also observed that slaughtering and processing facilities for poultry in Ghana are limited and wants the government’s consideration to put up more of such facilities to help process more domestic chicken for consumption.
“As we speak, many local poultry producers are devising strategies to sustain their business, but the demand for the domestic chicken is limited and forcing many of us out of operation.”
