United States to support Ghana's poultry industry

The United States of America Poultry and Egg Export Council (USAPEEC) on Thursday announced its readiness to collaborate with the Ghanaian Poultry Industry to support the sector to improve poultry production and consumption.

The support package would include education and training as well as linking players in the industry to companies to establish poultry product processing plants to prevent losses.

Dr Mark Lobstein Director of Technical Service at the USAPEEC made this known in an interview with the Ghana News Agency in Atlanta.

The interview was held on the side lines of an educational tour to the USA organised by the USAPEEC and the US Embassy in Ghana for a 12-member Ghanaian delegation comprising poultry and veterinary officials from the Ministry of Food and Agriculture, members of the Poultry Farmers Association and journalists.

As part of the tour the group will visit farms, poultry sales outlets, hatcheries and cold stores to familiarise themselves with the best practice in the poultry industry and deliberate on how effective collaboration can help the business to grow.

Dr Lobstein said as the first step of the Councils commitment, a fact finding exercise had been completed and a delegation was in Ghana in February last year to meet stakeholders, during which a number of issues were discussed.

He said the move would make the industry vibrant to be able to reduce unemployment and also make the product dependable, reliable and affordable.

“After this stage, we will raise funds from our stakeholders by presenting the various issues to them and appeal to them to support the Ghanaian industry since it will be on a mutual benefit to both countries. This will be done through seminars to expose them to some of the challenges,” he said.

The last step he explained would be implementation of the various issues as well as sustainability.

He praised Ghana for upholding high standard of poultry practices.

Dr Frances Hammond, Chairman of the Greater Accra Poultry Farmers Association called for the subsidisation of poultry feed which is one of the major challenges facing the industry.

Some of the concerns the Ghanaian delegation trumpeted was the high fat content of US poultry products exported to Ghana.