An Agricultural Economist, Alhaji Adams Mahama, has argued that the ongoing grass cutter project intended to promote mass production of the bush meat for local consumption is a diversionary tactic employed by European countries to discourage the development of the poultry industry.

Mahama who is also a researcher at University of Ghana explained that EU countries need markets like Ghana to continue dumping their cheap poultry products .

"There is no way we can breed grass cutters in large quantities. I think we should concentrate on developing the poultry industry", Mahama told the Legon branch of Gonjaland Youth Association recently.

The Agricultural Economist's assertion brings to mind the spate of poultry importation into the country. Ghana currently imports 30,000 metric tons of poultry, the equivalent of 22 million live birds, according to figures from poultry producers association. And the figure is on the rise with each passing day.

A recent study by the poultry farmers revealed that imported poultry sell more than 30 percent below the local ones. The local farmers argue that on first impression it might seem imported chicken are produced at lower costs, but a careful cost input analysis would show that foreign chicken are cheap because of heavy subsidies.

The subsidies apart, most of the poultry entering the country are mostly expired products. As close as last Tuesday the Food and Drugs Board intercepted and destroyed some quantity of 3,000 tons of expired imported chicken from Argentina.

A 1999 Ministry of Trade statistics indicates that the price per ton of imported chicken from the Netherlands was US$865.00 per ton. Further research revealed that imports from the United Kingdom, Belgium, Denmark, USA and France range from US$0.72-US$1.0 per kilo. When prevailing duties and cost of distribution are added, it translates to approximately ?14,000 a kilo against ?45,000 per live bird.

The wide price difference perhaps accounts for many families going for frozen chicken. But can Ghana continue to depend on foreign imports for her protein needs? What is the way forward, should government impose high tariffs on imported chicken? These are the questions agitating the minds of policy makers and stakeholders.

The Association of Poultry Farmers think government should impose a special tariff, of at least 80 percent on imported chicken to create a level playing field. The farmers argue strongly that developed countries are applying trade restrictions on imported products, even though these restrictions contravene international free trade ideals. They cite the Japanese Rice Quota, US Textile Quota and the European Quota on Agricultural products as examples of discriminatory tariffs.

The government seems to have heeded the cry of local poultry farmers. In the 2003 Budget statement presented to parliament on Thursday, February 27, the Minister of Finance, Yaw Osafo Maafo slapped an additional import duty of 20 percent on finish poultry products are imported into the country.

But can the local industry grow more fowls to feed the population in the wake of reduced imports prompted by tariffs? The then Minister of Trade and Industry, Dr. Konadu Apraku raised fears of the inability of the local industry to meet local demand when he addressed the WTO workshop. The Chairman of Poultry Farmers conceded that local capacity is low at the moment to meet growing poultry demand, but was quick to add that given the necessary push the industry will deliver.