The Ghana Accra Poultry Farmers Association (GAPFA) wants the government to act quickly to avert a total collapse of the poultry industry.
The industry, according to GAPFA, has for a very long time been faced with various challenges, hence their call.
Measures the poultry farmers are proposing include regular engagements with industry players and key stakeholders to deliberate on the way forward in restoring the once vibrant industry. According to the group, although the government has scrapped the 30% benchmark value reduction policy, – a measure they believe is in the best interest of the industry (since there will be less importation of poultry products into the country) – more needs to be done.
A Board Member of the Association, Kwame Ntim Duoduo, believes that “if the government were to meet the poultry farmers and work out the maths together on how much maize is needed for the industry, that will be a solution to the shortages” they have been facing.
He also believes measures geared towards decreasing importation of poultry products into the country will significantly boost the local poultry industry.
Currently, Ghanaians consume about 400,000 tonnes of poultry products annually. This corresponds to roughly 13 kg per person.
However, only 58,000 tonnes come from domestic production – the rest is imported. Reports further indicate that the import of chicken meat accounts for 80 percent of the country’s total meat imports. In 2019, the Ghanaian government launched an initiative to promote the rearing of poultry in the country.
Proposing a way to deal with the situation, Mr Duoduo noted that “government [must engage them] and say in one or two years we want to reduce importation of poultry by this amount, so position [poultry farmers] yourselves to fill that space so that, that amount of chicken which will no longer be imported in Ghana.
“So farmers should take that up. So before any policy changes like the benchmark…farmers can make up for that shortfall, so we have to work together,” he added.
In January this year, the Customs Division of the Ghana Revenue Authority (GRA) commenced the implementation of the government’s policy directive on the reversal of the reduction of values of imports on 43 selected items.
In implementing the policy, government through the According to GRA, this is to ensure that importers or agents pay 100 per cent duty on selected items. The benchmark policy was introduced in 2019, in accordance with the World Customs
Organisation’s policy of regular review of valuation databases. It covered goods such as home delivery value of vehicles, goods on which benchmark values are applied and all other goods. Under this policy, certain commodities were benchmarked to the prevailing world prices as a risk management tool to reflect the true market dynamics of these commodities.
It also considered factors such as protection of health, the environment, and security, as well as protection of local industries.
Source: The Independent Ghana