By Earl Ankrah/the World Bank/MoFA
Ghanaians have an over-the-top appetite for chicken: their hot chicken light soups or irresistible chicken stews and gravies; their globally acclaimed jollof rice – with chicken as an integral part of the whole scheme; and the eye-popping, xtra-spicy, xtra-crispy chicken barbecues (grilled or fried) – at all manner of occasions and locations.
Yet this tongue-flapping appetite has not ignited enough excitement among local meat industry players to cash in. The reason has forever been about fierce competition from imported poultry, whose low prices and well-thought-out packaging (of frozen processed birds) make them outsell the homegrown lot. Another reason is the absence of major capital injection into the poultry industry.
These “excuses” indeed are not far from the truth. But then, why should the Ghanaian consumer care? All that matters is that there is, and there shall always be Chicken for The People. Parties are poppin’! Mouths are watering – if we can’t breed ‘em, we fly ‘em in, right? Well, that right there, is where the problem lies.
Ghana relies heavily on imports to meet the soaring demand for poultry meat. As at 2021, imports of chicken and its products was in excess of $300 million – funds that could be ‘laid’ into the wallets of local business runners and to churn-in even more businesses in other sectors of the economy. Invariably, each time a Ghanaian bites into imported chicken, he clips the wings of the local poultry industry, whiles blowing winds under the wings of $300m in flight out of the country! The total national consumption requirement for poultry in 2022 was 324,047 metric tonnes (MT).
However, local production was only 15,000MT (5%) and this gap was filled by importation, though the country has overwhelming potential to be self-sufficient in poultry production. The question therefore is – what exactly is pecking at the local broiler industry? Why is it not thriving? And why is it losing ground to cheap, suspiciously unhealthy imports?
‘Headless chicken’ – Setbacks in the poultry industry
The Ghanaian poultry industry has been in a tailspin, barely making any headway, due to inherent production and postproduction challenges, among which are: high cost of feed, unregulated and unstandardized hatchery operations, poor disease surveillance control and management systems, inappropriate infrastructural systems and inefficient management systems – all culminating in low productivity.
Beyond these are post-production ailments which include the inadequate capacity of poultry processing facilities, inconvenient packaging – the current consumer lifestyle favours pre-packaged processed parts of the chicken; and weak marketing linkages.
Counting the costs before they’re hatched
Pricing is a major sore point for the local industry, since there exists a pricing against imported broilers – whose lower price-tags make them more affordable to the local consumer. However, the solution for local producers is not as simple as hopping down the ‘price-perch’ to compete.
Same as any other business, the price of poultry is drawn directly from its cost of production, major among which is feeding. In the case of broiler, the older it grows (or the longer it stays on the farm), the more expensive it gets – senior birds have bigger appetites and are fed on more expensive adult feed types and quantities.
Again, after processing, the longer the bird stays in cold storage (due to the absence of ready markets), the higher the electricity costs – and that’s if producers stick strictly to the Ghana Standards Authority’s stipulated cold storage requirements: i.e., 4 degrees Celsius (for dressed poultry, for a max of 7 days) and -18 degrees Celsius (for frozen poultry, for a max of 9 months). Hence readily available markets are crucial, not only to make them affordable, but more importantly, to sell them fresh, healthy, nutritious and tasty.
To understand the poultry farmer, below are some nugget points on chicken production, costs and sales, as at November 2024 (date of this article). Let’s do the maths:
- PRODUCTION
Broilers:
Broilers are characteristically tender and are mostly used for stews or enjoyed grilled or fried. Hence they are purposely bred for up to 5-7 weeks. Within the period, each of them consumes an average of 4.5 kg of feed within the span of 6-7 weeks. The average cost of feed per kg is 9 GHC. That brings it to 40.5 GHC per bird. Then follows processing.
- PROCESSING
Processing involves slaughtering, dressing, chilling and immediate blast freezing. That comes at a cost of 6 GHC per bird. It’s worth noting that when a bird crosses a certain weight and size, automated processing facilities are unable to carry them through. Hence manual or semi-automatic processing methods are to be deployed.
- PACKAGING:
The boxes in which processed birds are packed must be robust enough to bear the weights of other boxes packed on them, and yet flexible enough to enable the chill to reach through the plastic, the flesh, bone and marrow of each bird. That costs 24 GHC each.
- COLD TRANSPORTATION (VAN)
Ghana Standards Authority (GSA) and indeed best practices require that birds are transported from the processing facility to retail shops under specified temperatures.
That service is charged collectively at 3500 GHC per 5 tons. A 140-footer container carries 2,500 boxes of chicken, weighing 10 kg per box.
- COLD STORAGE [Ghana Standard GS 91:2015 3rd Edition]
Once in the retail shop, GSA and FDA regulations demand that type A birds are to be chilled “so that the temperature of the deepest portion of the flesh near the bone shall be at least 0-4 degrees Celsius”.
That therefore comes at a cost of 1GHC per bird for the stipulated period. Type B birds are to be “packaged in biodegradable bags and shall be frozen to a temperature of -18 degrees Celsius when delivered”. GSA regulations further dictate that “thawed frozen poultry shall not be refrozen”.
- OTHER EXPENSES
Vaccines, space rental, labour, electricity, bio-security services, all add up to the costs of raising birds.
Layers:
Layers are raised purposely to produce eggs either for direct sale or for breeding. They are later sold out for consumption, mostly for soups after 75 weeks, when they are considered “spent”. Those that produce eggs solely for consumption are raised separately from those that produce eggs for breeding. At all costs, in-breeding is avoided. Feeding layers commences with concentrated meals for 3 weeks, after which the rationing is reformulated to prolong growth.
- MARKETING
The cost of a live bird, weighing 2.8kg is 75 GHC.
A processed bird of 2.0kg (dress-weight) sells at 96.7 GHC; or at 49 GHC per kg.
This covers processing, cold storage and profit margins. A Spent Layer of 75 weeks and at a live weight of 1.8-2.0 kg or above, sells at 65GHC.
These regulator-prescribed protocols are inescapable by the local farmer, hence the pricing as quoted is almost unavoidable. Meanwhile, the average cost of imported broiler poultry is currently 40 GHC per kilo.
In that light, to be able to compete, the local producer would have to step down the price perch, whiles ensuring to sell-off within 7 days of processing. However, if there is a guaranteed sizeable market, the local producer could make huge profits at competitive marginal costs, making it reasonably profitable for the farmer and affordable for the consumer. At that rate, imported broilers could face some hot, crispy and spicy competition from locally produced birds … if there were ready Ghanaian buyers.
The ‘Efie Akukor’ dilemma
One unavoidable point worth dissecting, is the fact that the millennial Ghanaian consumer appears to have a preference for more mature chicken with harder bones, thicker meat and a certain indigenous taste – the types that are usually raised at home, as casual domestic hobbies, with no commercial intent.
It’s all good, but truth be told, those are not raised in organized, commercial quantities and are not under strict regulatory supervision since that certainly does make them more expensive to produce and sell. Hence the tendency to wait for the ‘spent layers’ which after 75 weeks of playing their ‘born-to-breed’ roles, get released unto the market.
Here’s the catch though: purchasing mature birds at heavier weights and yet at affordable prices is totally attainable, if the market base is wide and guaranteed, since that would motivate local producers to opt for leaner profit margins spread over large stocks. The other option would be to wait for ‘spent layers’.
Chicken Run! – The FSRP-MOFA Poultry Intensification Scheme
In a determined move to claw into this entire phenomenon, save the nation some cool US$300m, as well as create valuable and sustainable value chain jobs, the Ministry of Food and Agriculture (MOFA) has targeted broiler poultry production of 420,000 MT (which constitutes 111% national self-sufficiency) by 2028.
Under this annually staggered arrangement, Ghana is expected to attain 12.7% (42,610 MT) by the end of this year (2024), through the facilitation of the supply of improved breed of broilers; facilitation of the expansion of processing facilities (through Matching Grants); provision of adequate animal husbandry/ health services and training; and facilitation of access to structured market arrangements.
In line with this, FSRP (West Africa Food System Resilience Programme) under MOFA, through World Bank funding, has rolled out the Poultry Intensification Scheme (PIS), which is being run in phases. PIS beneficiaries are receiving input credit in the form of day-old chicks, feed supplies, as well as supplies of vaccines. They are also being trained in best modern practices and climate-smart technologies within the poultry industry. They will further be able to access matching grants to procure equipment to support post-production processing and cold storage.
The scheme targets the production of approximately 2 million broiler birds on a yearly basis, under a $12.5m World Bank facility. Under the scheme, commercial anchor farmers and their outgrowers nationwide are getting this support to produce, process and market 2 million birds annually over the next 3 years.
‘Feather in the Cap’- FSRP strides so far
To that end, since July 2024, FSRP has facilitated input credit to 22 anchor farmers in 6 regions (Ashanti, Bono, Oti, Greater Accra, Central and Eastern) by way of 360,500 day-old chicks, 911, 000 doses of vaccines (HBI, Lasota, Umboro 1 & 2) and 4.5kg of feed per bird – totalling 1,179,000 kg of feed; in all, amounting to approximately 13.5m GHC so far. As a result, within 4 months (as at November 2024), the Poultry Intensification Scheme has led to the production of 400,000 birds. The anchor farmers have further drafted beneficiary outgrower farmers into the game.
‘Fowl’ Play! – Scare of the imported chicken
FSRP broilers are raised under the prying eyes of an entire community of state regulatory bodies and experts. Monitoring teams made up of officials of Animal Production Directorate (APD-MOFA), the Veterinary Services Dept (VSD-MOFA), as well as FSRP’s team of Technical Specialists, together with regulatory officials inspect the poultry farms and processing facilities to ascertain their adherence to laid down industrial standards like feed quality, vaccination timeliness, bio-security protocols, stipulated weights, microbiology checks and general healthcare of the birds.
Unfortunately, these cannot be guaranteed when it comes to imported poultry. Some are alleged to be produced without regulatory oversight. This means necessities like timely vaccinations, approved feed types, proven hygienic raising methods, storage of the processed birds within strictly stipulated temperatures, etc, cannot be verified or guaranteed.
They may come in with all the required import documentations, but that may just paperwork, which may well be filled with nothing but a ‘copy and paste’ cocktail of concocted stories. These questions will therefore forever flutter: what quality control measures are observed in the production chains of imported poultry? Under what conditions are they raised, cared for, slaughtered and dressed?
How certain are we that they were disease-free prior to slaughter? Under what conditions are they frozen after processing? Some, we hear, are injected with chems to keep them looking fresh. Smh!
How long are they kept before getting transported overseas and how long do they float on the seas before they arrive in our markets? How long were they kept in those cold stores there and here?; and under what regulatory temperatures?
Meanwhile, after slaughtering, processing, chilling, blast freezing, cold transportation, delivery at the retail shop, etc (all under regulatory requirements), GH chicken can hit dinning tables within 24 hours! Can we guarantee same for imported chicken?
Flocking together
Some have fumed, understandably, “why doesn’t government just place a gripping ban on imported chicken? – that should give the local industry some leverage and space to grow!”. But as the FSRP Project Coordinator warns: first, that move would be gravely counter-productive, since we don’t have the capacity yet to meet the hefty local demand. It would trigger blistering inflation on chicken, among other rippling effects.
Secondly, let’s remember, FSRP is all about promoting open trade in food and agric produce within the West African sub-region. We are in this together with sister participating countries. Indeed, consumers from neighbouring countries cross-over to purchase some of our chicken. The FSRP approach, therefore, is to work to gradually reduce imports, by using home advantage to take over the local poultry market and even export.
Moreover, players in the poultry importation business are invited to take advantage of the Poultry Intensification Scheme and switch over to local production and exportation. That should be a hassle-free easier sell, besides serving the greater national good.
The ‘cluck’ is ticking!
Mind you, as the year glides to an end, forex nearing US$300 million is in flight out of the Ghanaian economy to build foreign economies, at the expense of Ghanaian poultry value chain players. Remember, a bite into imported chicken, is a bite out of the Ghanaian economy, with a clear and present effect on jobs, exchange rates, nationwide public services, and believe it or not, salaries! – not to mention the highly possible loss of nutritional value and imminent health risks to our populace (especially children and students), may be exposed to.
As the Food & Agric Minister, Dr. Bryan Acheampong emphasized at the FSRP stand during this year’s National Farmers Day Exhibition, the slightly higher cost of homegrown poultry isn’t as cut-throat as alleged, given the health and nutritious sway they have over imported ones. Moreover, with FSRP support and sustained consumer patronage, the prices would level up in no time.
Through the World Bank and the Ministry of Food & Agriculture, FSRP has hit the road towards reaching its targeted two million birds per year, and eventually, MOFA’s overall targeted 420,000 MT (which constitutes 111% of national poultry self-sufficiency) by 2028.
This calls for all players in the industry (including anchor farmers, outgrowers, input suppliers, marketers, etc) to pitch-in to hold down US$300m for themselves and prevent all that cash from flying off our shores.
Consumer groups and bodies, including workers’ unions, school matrons, headmasters, church groups, employers, restaurants and alumni groups can make this happen simply by purposefully purchasing FSRP-MOFA-endorsed poultry. Only those are guaranteed to lock down all the US$300m here in Ghana to stimulate the wider economy. And only those can be guaranteed as being homegrown, quality-enforced, nutritiousness verified and tastefulness guaranteed.
