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Cheap imports hurt Ghana's poultry farmers
Ghana's domestic poultry industry is under threat from cheap frozen
imports from the EU.
In 2002, Ghana imported 26,000 tonnes of chicken, mostly from the European
Union. Two years later this figure had reached 40,000 tonnes. The domestic
market (which supplied 95% of Ghana's poultry requirements in 1992) only
supplied 11% of the total in 2002.
This has forced many local poultry
producers to drastically downsize or close down their businesses. The few
remaining poultry farms want the government to introduce measures to protect
local farmers, such as such as giving out subsidies or lowering bank interest
rates, raising tariffs, setting quotas or placing outright bans. Some industry
members believe that Ghana should follow the lead of neighbouring country
Nigeria, which limits imports of poultry, and other goods, even from its West
African neighbours.
But authorities have been reluctant to impose
such measures, saying that the local industry cannot meet the domestic demand
for poultry meat. A 40% tariff on imported poultry products that was planned to
begin in 2003, for instance, was never implemented.
Editor WorldPoultry
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