GHANA: Ghana’s government is currently implementing an ambitious programme aimed at reversing the nation’s dependence on imported poultry by increasing domestic production, writes Francis Ekow de Heer for ThePoultrySite.
The Ghana Broiler Rehabilitation Project (GHABROP), started in 2014, has involved raising tariffs on imported poultry, and requiring poultry importers to source part of their supplies locally. Local producers across the value chain are being assisted to raise production.
But although it is claimed that the local industry has raised production significantly, Ghana is nowhere near the projected target of 60,000 metric tonnes, or 40 per cent of local demand, that was expected to have been achieved by the end of 2016. According to current figures, Ghana will spend $198 million on 170,000 metric tonnes of poultry imports by the close of 2016.
The GHABROP is certainly well intended, but to most industry watchers it has set targets that are perhaps too optimistic. It is seeking to equip all units in the value chain – hatcheries, farmers, processors, the feed sector and the market – to produce local chicken to drastically reduce the amounts spent on imported chicken.
Under the programme, importers of poultry products are required to source 40 per cent of their products locally. But most poultry farmers are limited by technical and financial constraints, and have been unable to raise production levels. Mr Napoleon Oduro, Vice president of the National Association of Poultry Farmers, said recently that high production costs had compelled members of his association to raise prices of local chicken, making imported products cheaper.
