November 6, 2012

Ghana poultry farmers upset over rising chicken imports

Ghana received 70,000 tonnes of chicken imports from US in 2011, much to the frustration of the country's poultry farmers.

In 2010, the US, EU and Brazil together were said to have exported over 200,000 tonnes of frozen chicken to Ghana, valued at US$200 million.

During a debate in Accra on the topic "Is Importing Chicken Good for Ghana?" held in August 2011, farmers blamed the government for letting the poultry industry down.

They argued that the country seems to be clueless about how to save the industry. Governments keep repeating policies on poultry whenever a national budget is read, making promises to help farmers acquire equipment and increase taxes on imported chicken. Farmers cited a budget statement which indicated that the government would help poultry farmers to increase production, meeting the domestic demand by the year 2012.

There was even a time that parliament passed a law to increase taxes on the imports of frozen chicken but the law was never implemented due to pressures from the International Monetary Fund (IMF).

In an effort to gain more insight into the industry and in turn reduce the amount of poultry imports, Ghana's Trade Minister, Hannah Tetteh, requested that a Ghanaian team be allowed to travel to the US to study's their poultry industry.

The team is hosted here in Atlanta, Georgia, by the USA Poultry and Egg Export Council (USAPEEC).