Cameroon poultry farmers seek to re-launch production

As part of measures to re-launch production, poultry farmers in Cameroon are demanding compensation from the government for losses incurred during the avian flu scare in the country.

According to the president of the association of poultry farmers in Cameroon, Ahmadou Moussa, poultry farmers in Cote d'Ivoire, Burkina Faso and Niger received, but persistent effort in Cameroon have had not yet received a response.

Moussa also noted that the government is willing to spend money on imports, rather then compensating the farmers. "It is paradoxical that poultry farmers demand 3.131 billion in terms of compensation whereas the government spent 15 billion to import chicken product to Cameroon," he said.

The farmers meeting recently held in a general assembly in Yaounde demanded the creation of a special fund to boost the poultry sector derived from a percentage of the taxes on the importation of poultry products. They also requested for tax exonerations as most poultry farmers are broke due to losses incurred during the bird flu scare.

Before the bird flu scare, Cameroon used to produce 600,000 chickens a week, which could satisfy the domestic demand. Today, however, the figure is down to 50,000 chickens a week, said Moussa.

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Editor WorldPoultry