August 4, 2010

 

Ghana poultry farmers push to end imports

 

 

Poultry producers in Ghana are urging the government to bring to an end the importation of chicken meat, which is harming the local industry.

 

The Ghana National Association of Poultry Farmers (GNAPF) has appealed to the government to discourage what it calls the dumping of cheap imported poultry products into the country and create fair competition for the local poultry industry.

 

The GNAPF chairman Kwadwo Asante noted that annual imports of subsidised dressed poultry had risen from approximately 42,000 tonnes in 2005 to an estimated 130,000 tonnes in 2009, adding that the increase demonstrated the market potential of poultry products in the country and pointed out that the increase had been achieved with little or no promotion or special marketing efforts by importers.

 

According to Asante, the rising volume of highly subsidised imported chicken, which sold below the price of local products, had resulted in unfair competition.

 

He stressed that the situation attested to the position held by the GNAPF that price, and not marketing, was the overwhelming cause of the demise of the local broiler industry.

 

"The ability to dump products on the local market at prices below local cost is the result of various instruments used to subsidise agriculture and, in many cases, the poultry sector," he said.

 

He cited a policy change in Ivory Coast, which was helping to revive the local poultry industry, explaining that Ivorian poultry producers were enjoying strong growth because of the imposition of a tax on poultry product imports from the EU and South America, according to reports.