Chicken importation collapsing our businesses -Kumasi Poultry dealers cry to gov’t

Poultry dealers at the Kumasi Central Market have appealed the government to institute measures to check the influx of foreign dressed chickens’ importation to the country as it is collapsing the poultry business in Ghana.

The Secretary of the Fowl Dealers Association at the market, Joseph Amogya narrating their disappointment to Otec News’ Beatrice Oppong after Eid al-Fitr celebrations, he the price of the foreign chickens are relatively cheaper compared to the local ones, a situation if not checked, will cripple the local industry.

“As you all know Eid al-Fitr 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 Eid al-Fitr 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 Eid al-Fitr which were not sold,” Mr. Amogya said.

“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.”

“We have all been enlightened by the concept of ‘buy made in Ghana goods’ which sorts to protect and sustain the local industries, but our poultry business is collapsing due to the importation of these chickens. We the local firms cannot compete with them because they are cheap and our products are under patronage” he lamented.

He then appealed to the government “to bring up some measures to deal with the situation, we are not against those people in the importation of chicken business, something must done to protect our businesses. It can be in the form of incentives like tax free on our equipments, poultry feeds among others. This will even encourage more people to venture into the poultry business to sustain it for the development of the country”.

Source: otecfmghana.com