The Director, Animal Production, Ministry of Food and Agriculture has underscored the government’s commitment to improving local poultry production in the country. He said as part of efforts to boost the performance of local poultry against the foreign ones in the Ghanaian market, the government is planning to establish poultry processing plants across the country.

The plants, when established, will help local poultry producers to process their products and make them more accessible to consumers. He was speaking at the launch of the ‘Eat Ghana Chicken’ campaign in Accra. He said discussions with key stakeholders and other partners in the poultry industry were far advanced to acquire the processing facilities to help the local market.

The director pointed out that the campaign to promote Ghanaian chicken was very crucial because many people do not know where to get local poultry products. “It is time for the local producers to make their products easy to get because the imported chicken is processed into convenient pieces and made easily accessible to customers.”

Mr Arkorful said poultry production is a key driver of the country’s economy and, “The contribution of a flourishing poultry is vital to the national economy in terms of increasing employment particularly in the rural areas, and providing food for households”. He therefore called for the collective efforts of all stakeholders to help local poultry to compete with the foreign ones in the market.

Madam Evelyn Agyenim Boateng, President of the Women in Poultry Production, Ashanti Region, appealed to financial institutions to assist the local farmers to promote their products. Citing finances as one of their major challenges, Madam Boateng pleaded with the lending institutions to introduce loans to local poultry producers with flexible payment conditions to help them to expand their production.

“When we produce more, then the economies of scale set in so that the prices can come down for people to afford them. “We also hope that with this campaign more companies will come on board to produce more chicken and get them everywhere for people to get them,” she said.

She further reiterated the benefits of eating locally produced poultry products, saying, “our chicken is healthier and the taste is better.” “So why should we be here and talk about unemployment while we eat imported chicken to make somebody’s market grow?” she quizzed.

Touching on the importance of the campaign, Carianne De Boer, Chief of Party, Ghana Poultry Project, expressed worry about the lack of awareness of the importance of local poultry products, hence the campaign. She added that the campaign will focus on increasing the competitiveness of local poultry products on the market.

“We found out that there’s not so much awareness and plans for the local poultry sector. Very few people even know the benefits of the poultry we produce in Ghana. “We want to make sure that the Ghanaian poultry sector is able to increase its competitiveness because their percentage in the market is very low,” Madam De Boer noted.