According to the association, government must do more by equipping local poultry farmers to meet the demand for poultry.

The Ministry of Agriculture recently announced that it has restricted the importation of frozen poultry products into the country. Poultry farmers have on several occasions lamented the effect of the high import of poultry into the country as one of the many hindrances to the growth of their industry.

Speaking to Citi Business News on the matter, Vice President of the Local Poultry Farmers Association, Mr. Napoleon Agyemang Oduro said in order for the local poultry industry to be sustained, government must do more than restricting the import of poultry products.

“I will first want to see what measures we have put in place to enhance production and productivity in the country and then we can talk of the restriction, otherwise it will just be an economic disgrace to say we have started restriction when our poultry farmers cannot produce to fill the gap,” he said.

Mr. Oduro explained that poultry farmers need support from government to enable them gradually fill in the gap that will come along with the restriction.

“There is the need to do something at every stage of the value chain. So if we are talking about restriction it’s good but we will also have to supply what it takes to produce and fill the gap”.

He added, “It is important we position ourselves in terms of activity to be able to fill the gap , we have the hatcheries, the seed millers, the , the processing materials and the poultry farmers , so all we want is government support and guidance to help us fill in the gap”.

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By: Anita Arthur/citibusinessnews.com/Ghana

The post Poultry Farmers Association appeals to gov’t for support appeared first on Citi 97.3 FM - Relevant Radio. Always.

“As you all know Christmas is the time when poultry farmers sell a lot of chicken, be it broilers and especially spent layers. Unfortunately for us, the story on the table is that this Christmas our sales record was so bad. As we speak now there are hundreds of thousands of spent layers on our farms that should have been sold during Christmas which were not sold,” the spokesperson of the Association, John Bewuah Edusei said.

[contextly_sidebar id=”WnalQxx3yZax8LNTpoctK9FS7gBMUcik”]”The reason is the imported chicken which has been dumped on us. The dumping of imported chicken is destroying an industry that has the capability to provide so many jobs for our youths who are running up and down the country looking for jobs to do.”

The farmers have accused successive administrations of not doing enough to stop the continuous importation of chicken which has proven inimical to the poultry industry in Ghana.

“Government after government promises jobs and revamping the poultry industry, but we are seeing rather a serious decline and a possible collapse of an industry that was very vibrant,” he said.

“As I speak now, Ghana’s total poultry and chicken imports of about two hundred and fifty thousand metric tons works to a weekly production of 4.5 million kilo chicken production. What I mean is that if Ghanaian farmers were supposed to produce to feed our country with chicken, we are supposed to produce 4.5 million kilo chicken per week, and this is a huge job avenue, and work that is being thrown out there for people to bring in dumped chicken which nobody knows where it’s coming from.”

The Association also claims that high profile personalities, politicians and other business persons linked to the Presidency have been engaging in the importation of chicken, a development which they say threatens the local industry.

“We think it’s time government sits up and see to it, we know of people linked to the presidency, people linked to the council of state, people aligned with parliament and a few other businessmen who have made this their business and trying to bring in everything, at the expense of an industry that is dying and at the expense of an industry that has the ability to produce so many jobs for our youths. And this, we think is wrong.” John Bewuah Edusei added.

At a news conference in Kumasi, the Association called on the Deputy Minister Agriculture in charge of livestock to “sit up or resign.”

“We call on the government to sit up; we call on the ministry to sit up. As we speak now, we do not know the deputy minister who is in charge of us. We are told that there is somebody in the presidency that is in charge of livestock and we think that he is not doing his job,” Mr. Eduseo said.

“If he has any conscience we want him to resign because for a whole year in administration we have not had any interactions with him.”

John Bewuah Edusei further called on various stakeholders to rally behind the Ashanti Regional Association of Poultry Farmers to successfully bring an end to the situation.

“We are calling on the catholic bishop conference, they have done it before, they have called for government to review the fact that there is too many chicken coming into this country, we are calling on our doctors and nurses, we are calling on our parliamentarians, they represent us. We are calling on all professional bodies to rise up and fight with us, because we are eating something which sources we are not aware of and we think that it is wrong,” he added.

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By: Ann-Shirley Ziwu/Hafiz Tijani/citifmonline.com/Ghana

The post Poultry farmers blame poor Christmas sales on chicken imports appeared first on Citi 97.3 FM - Relevant Radio. Always.

Poultry farmers are threatening legal action should government refuse to refund the GHc6 million cedis that was used in financing the pilot phase of the Ghana Broiler Revitalization Program (GHABROP) launched in 2014.

According to them, all efforts aimed at getting a refund have proven futile.

The loan, which was taken from Barclays Bank by Boris B’s Farms and Veterinary Supplies Limited, was to help boost the growth of the poultry industry.

Although the principal of the loan and its interest have risen to 8 million cedis, Boris B’s and the poultry farmers say the proceeds have yielded just GHc 2million which is not enough to retire even the principal.

The poultry sector has seen a huge decline over the years, and farmers believe it may totally collapse if government continues to ignore the sector.

Vice Chairman of the Poultry Farmers Association of Ghana, Napoleon Agyeman Oduro, says the refusal by government to pay the loan is causing huge discomfort and challenges to the borrowers.

He further pleaded with government to investigate and reimburse the financiers as the industry is collapsing.

“This did not happen in this current government’s hands. However, we want to plead with them to investigate. The entrepreneur deserves some form of compensation, some form of reimbursement.”

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By: Jessica Ayorkor Aryee/citibusinessnews.com/Ghana.

The post Poultry farmers livid over delay in GH¢6m loan refund appeared first on Citi 97.3 FM - Relevant Radio. Always.