General News of Thursday, 14 November 2019

Source: www.ghanaweb.com

As a President, I become happy anytime poultry farmers make money – Mahama

Former President of Ghana, John Dramani Mahama play videoFormer President of Ghana, John Dramani Mahama

Former President John Dramani Mahama has revealed that he becomes excited anytime poultry farmers make massive sales in production.

His comment comes on the back of the frequent cry of poultry farmers over their competition with foreign breeds on the market.

Spelling out some challenges Ghana Poultry Farmers Association is faced with, the former President noted that the major problem is the high importation of poultry into the country.

According to Mahama, there has been an imposition of tariffs on foreign breeds over the years. This action taken, Mahama explained was to make room for locally produced ones to be able to compete on the international market.

In an interaction with Ghana Poultry Farmers Association to deliberate on pragmatic ways to stop the high importation of poultry farms into the country, Mahama stated that “there was a tariff on imported poultry in order to make it more expensive and give our poultry the chance to compete because if poultry farmers are happy and they are making money, of course as President, I should be happy”.

Over the years, local poultry producers have fought the frequent importation of poultry into the country because the action was gradually collapsing the local business though they equally have the capacity to meet international demands.

According to the Ghana Poultry Farmers Association, these foreign products imported are often stale and have lost their nutritional value because they have been kept for a long time hence, posing as a health risk to consumers.

John Mahama however, entreated poultry farmers to nicely package their products and also make it market-friendly to make it attractive for basic Ghanaian consumers to purchase.