Poultry farmers appeal for processing factories

Poultry farmers in the Sunyani Municipality have appealed for processing factories to add value to poultry products for both the export and domestic markets.

Mr Charles Korang, the Chairman of the Sunyani Municipal branch of the Poultry Farmers Association, made the call in an interview with the Ghana News Agency (GNA), during a visit to his farm at Dumasua in the Sunyani West Municipality.

With the factory, Mr Korang, also the Managing Director of the Krobea Farms, which had more than 10,000 birds, said the farmers would not only have good prices for their poultry products but also create more job opportunities for the youth.

The country would also be well positioned to export poultry products to widen her foreign income earnings too.

Mr Korang said the farmers also needed a ready market and good prices for their products to sustain their economic activities.

He regretted that the country’s poultry industry was going through difficult times due to the high price of concentrates, rice barn, soya beans and other poultry products, and he called on the government to subsidize and make the products affordable.

Commenting on the government’s intentions to supply the farmers with broilers under the implementation of Phase Two of the Planting for Food and Jobs (PfFJs 2.0) programme, Mr Korang said, “We don’t need the broilers now.”

“Every poultry farmer can buy broilers, but what we need is the factory and ready markets for the broilers. If you have the broilers and there is no processing factory or ready market, then what is the essence,” he stated.

“My brother, our problem is not the broilers. The government must rather look for and partner with investors, build processing factories, and also provide a ready market for local poultry products to sustain the industry.”

“In fact, from the way things are going, if the government fails to intervene the poultry industry will collapse very soon,” he stated.

Korang said the high price of soya beans was also another pressing challenge confronting the industry and called on the government to support farmers to engage in commercial plantation of soya beans to feed the sector.