The Ashanti Regional Secretary of the Ghana National Association of Poultry Farmers, Amoako Nketia, has urged Ghanaians to patronise locally produced chicken for consumption.

According to him, this will not only help poultry farmers to expand their businesses and employ more workers, but also contribute to the socioeconomic development of the nation.

In an interaction with Class News’ regional correspondent, Elisha Adarkwah, at an opening ceremony of a week-long training programme organised by Darko Farms Company Limited for about 200 poultry farmers in the Atwima Nwabiagya District, Mr Nketia said the low patronage by Ghanaians is gradually crippling the poultry farming business and called for government’s intervention to save the sector from total collapse.

“We want to tell Ghanaians to patronise our locally produced chicken. If you compare the taste of our locally produced chicken, it is better than those that come from outside the country because it is frozen. Frozen means that is has been dead for a very long time but ours, when we kill them, by two days it will be consumed by Ghanaians and they will see the difference,” he stated.

He added: “So Ghanaians should patronise or buy our locally produced chicken so that they can be strong and healthy. When we import [foreign chicken] it brings our businesses down because the more they bring in, they more they don’t buy the locally produced chicken because they will tell you the price of the Ghanaian one is too high. So we want government to come in.”

Mr Nketia also appealed to the government to help poultry farmers with loans and grants among other incentives. “The interest rates on our loans by these bankers are very high. The least is about 40 per cent and it is killing. If we look at how we are going to put our prices together, the interest alone brings our business down,” he lamented.