The National Chairman of the Poultry Farmers Association of Ghana, Victor Oppong Agyei, has disclosed that the poultry industry is heading for collapse if they do not increase the prices of eggs by 30 percent.
Mr. Oppong Agyei revealed that poultry farmers are no longer going for day-old chicks because of challenges with feeding. “When we don’t have the feed, there is no poultry, and when we talk of feed, we have components mixed to get the required feed. It consists of maize, soya, and other things,” he said. “But we are using only three that have necessitated us to increase the egg prices,” he further lamented.
“Maize is about 50 to 60% of the entire poultry feed. Soya constitutes about 15 to 25% of the entire feed, and beans is about 15 to 25%. A bag of maize we were buying at Ghc55 has gone up percentage-wise by 277%, soybeans have also gone by 300%, and wheat has also gone up by over 300%. So looking at all these inputs and the prices, we realized that if we cannot adjust the prices of eggs very soon, there will be no poultry farmer in the county.”
Mr. Adjei
Poultry farmers cannot restock day old chicks
He further added that many farmers have folded up, and some have reduced their stock.
“There are some who have 300,000 bird capacity, but now, only 50,000 birds are there. There is another poultry farmer in the Eastern region with 52,000 birds, but now has 700 birds. Farmers are now not even ready to go for the day-old chicks because they are thinking of how to feed them.”
Mr. Agyei
The President of the Association also pointed out the issues of non-availability of the feed, informing their decision to increase the price of eggs in the country.
“Because when we cannot adjust the eggs prices, it will mean that poultry farmers will be running at a loss, and eventually the farms will collapse,” Mr. Oppong Adjei added.
He added that the new prices of eggs would take effect from the first week of May 2022.
Crisis after crisis
Not long after poultry farmers lost a chunk of their birds to the ‘bird flu’ disease, the issue of poultry feed also became news in the headlines. The ‘bird flu’ disease initially occurred in 2015 and 2016 in six regions of Ghana namely Greater Accra, Central, Eastern, Western, Volta, and Ashanti, affecting 148,448 birds.
Also in June 2018, H5N1 outbreaks were reported at Bonkra and Atia in the Ashanti region as well as Nkawkaw in the Eastern region, affecting 12,175 birds. The latest outbreaks were reported last year, 2021.
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