FairPlay has reported regularly on the travails of the poultry industries in West Africa because of a flood of dumped chicken imports from Brazil and the European Union.
In Ghana, the local industry collapsed when chicken imports took 95% of the market. The country is investing some $87 million to try to revitalise the poultry industry there.
Now comes a look at what Senegal and the Ivory Coast did to save their industries. Details are provided in an article in the latest issue of the Poultry Bulletin, published by the SA Poultry Association.
Both countries took action in 2005, after poultry imports into Ivory Coast increased six-fold in 2004 – taking 90% of the market – and imports into Senegal quadrupled between 2000 and 2005.
Senegal banned all chicken imports, while the Ivory Coast imposed a levy of the equivalent of R26/kg. The Agence France-Presse (AFP) article said the levy has been extended to 2030.
Senegal is now producing 110 000 tons of poultry a year, compared to 30 000 tons in 2005. The sector employs 50 000 people, 50% of whom are women, and generates a turnover of R3,3 billion annually, the article says.
In the Ivory Coast, poultry production increased threefold from 18 000 tons in 2011 to 56 000 tons in 2018. Imported chicken prices rose to around R57/kg today from around R31/kg in 2005 while the price of local chicken has remained stable at around R41/kg. As a result, the industry has taken off.
The author says Senegal and Ivory Coast will need to step up support to keep out the world’s major chicken exporters.
A farmer in told AFP, “if imported chicken comes back to us, we will all be unemployed.”
Image: From “Ghana’s Last Poultry Farmers”, a feature on EU chicken dumping in Ghana produced by Deutsche Welle.
