President of the Greater Accra Women in Poultry Gifty Rodor says the importation of poultry into the country has discouraged banks from funding local birds production.

Speaking in an interview with GhanaWeb, the Greater Accra Regional president lamented how the inadequate funds inhibits the growth of the sector.

According to her, poultry farming is a capital intensive market hence needs a lot of investments. However, financial institutions are unable to support the sector because of cheap imports from the international market.

She indicated that the low market for local poultry as compared to the foreign ones scares banks from investing.

Rodor explained that “foreign poultry is cheap because they have the economy of scale to produce on a large scale. Their huge economic advantage makes them price at a low price to beat local prices. This makes Ghanaians consumes more foreign chicken than local ones.

“On our side since our prices are high and it is not really a deliberate price raise, a lot of people do not consume our products make us have a small market. Banks are afraid of investing in our small market,” she noted.

She further called for a ban to be placed on poultry importation.

Government plans to ban poultry imports in 3 years

In 2019, the Agriculture Minister Dr. Owusu Afriyie-Akoto said there will be a ban of poultry imports into the country in three years if everything goes as planned.

The same applies to persons who import rice.

Dr. Owusu Afriyie-Akoto says the government is working fervently to “establish the local capacity” to meet demand.