A thawed whole chicken
The Chief Executive Officer of Joerees Farms, Mr. Joseph Boakye-Yiadom, has revealed that a whopping 95 percent of chicken in big supermarkets in Ghana are unwholesome and harmful for human consumption.
Mr. Boakye-Yiadom made this revelation in an exclusive interview with Ghana Crusader at his chicken processing site in Oyarifa, a suburb of Accra.
Master Joerees as he is affectionately called boasts of considerable experience having operated in the poultry industry for close to ten years.
He was emphatic that he has come to know the modus operandi of all of these big supermarkets in handling chicken products.
“All these chicken products you see are not fresh ones, they are thawed imported chicken which are imported. Before they are put on display, they are soaked in blood solution and harmful additives added,” he disclosed.
According to Mr. Boakye-Yiadom, several complaints have gone to the Food and Drugs Authority to check the activities of these supermarkets but officials of the regulatory agency have been sleeping on their jobs.
“They buy about 5 per cent of locally produced chicken from us and then mix with plenty imported frozen chicken. They will then label all as coming from local producers. This is deception,” he said, adding that “… this is the reason why we suspended our services to the supermarkets so that we target the Ghanaian final consumer.”
Mr. Boakye-Yiadom stressed that the health of his consumers is of utmost importance to him, hence, he will not compromise his integrity by towing the direction of deception by some industry players.
Joerees Farms started in 2009. It currently has two production sites in the Ashanti region and a processing site in Accra. The farm has a total of 18,000 birds comprising layers and broilers.
Mr. Boakye-Yiadom appealed to Ghanaians to patronise local chicken since most of them are hygienically processed as compared to the foreign ones.
He also appealed to the government to take more pragmatic steps to help local poultry farmers get inputs such as corn, soya and wheat at affordable prices.
