A decade after Ghana’s poultry industry was crippled by dumped chicken imports, it remains in trouble.
The industry’s woes continue, with unfairly priced chicken imports taking most of the domestic market. This is despite multiple government efforts over the past 10 years to revive local poultry production.
In 2016, Ghana’s then president John Mahama, told the United Nations that chicken imports had reduced local production to 5% of the local market. That year, Ghana launched a $87 million “Broiler revitalisation programme” as Ghana’s poultry industry accused the EU of “unfair competition”.
Last year, President Mahama launched what was described as “an ambitious plan to increase Ghana’s poultry self-sufficiency from the current 12% to more than 75% by 2028”.
The plan includes support for households, smallholder farmers and commercial poultry producers. It is part of the larger Feed Ghana Programme.
However, the industry’s problems remain, including huge volumes of dumped chicken from the European Union and other large poultry producing areas. The issue was raised again at last month’s Ghana Poultry Day, according to a report in WATTPoultry.
Ghana’s farmers are being helped by aid from the European Union, whose own poultry producers contributed to the Ghana industry collapse.
The report said that the EU has donated 150 000 poultry to 3 000 farmers, and has provided EUR 10 million (US$11 million) for the EU Food Security Response Northern Ghana project.
EU bosses are unlikely to appreciate the irony.
