Following the government’s decision to implement the cancellation of the 50% Benchmark value reduction policy on some 43 selected items including poultry, the Greater Accra Poultry Farmers Association is confident, the policy measure will boost the local poultry industry.

The growth of the Poultry Industry in the country over the period has suffered due to a myriad of challenges.

Effective January 4, 2022, 43 items including poultry imports will no longer benefit from the 50% reduction on their benchmark values.

Players in the country’s poultry industry have on numerous occasions lamented the unfair competition they face from imported products which are most of the time cheaper than local ones, making it difficult for local players to enjoy a majority market share and expand their businesses.

The poultry industry in the past year also suffered many setbacks and was on the verge of collapse due to difficulty in accessing feed due to a shortage of maize and the outbreak of bird flu. The flu caused the destruction of over ten thousand birds.

In an interview with Citi Business News, Board Member of the Greater Accra Poultry Farmers Association, Mr Kwame Ntim Duoduo said with the new policy in place, the local poultry farmers will now be able to compete favourably.

“We believe that we have the capacity to supply or meet all the protein from the chicken source of this country, we are able to do that expect that our cost of operation is always high and not competitive to those imported. With this new policy, we believe that it will bring us to a level of fair competition so that the cost that we incur in producing one chicken will be better or equal to those of the imported ones and that will make more Ghanaians consume the locally produced chicken”.