The Ghana National Association of Poultry Farmers has appealed to government to act promptly to establish a Poultry Council to help tackle challenges confronting the industry.

They expressed unhappiness about the present outlook of the industry saying it gave a cause for concern.

Mr Kwadwo Asante, the National Chairman, told the Ghana News Agency (GNA), said it would be in the interest of the nation not to allow its collapse and that every effort ought to be made to save and support it.

Mr Asante said already seven out of 12 hatcheries in the country had folded up and that even with the five left, they were operating at between 25 and 40 per cent capacity.

He said the nation would suffer a huge impact should the collapse of the industry be allowed and this would have repercussions on other sectors like investments in feed-mills and companies like the Ghana Nuts Limited, Vesta Oil Limited and Three “K” and “A” among others that are into soya cake production.

He said the nation consumes about 150,000-200,000 metric tons of frozen broiler chicken annually saying this capacity could be met by the local farmers in the right environment.