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Poultry Farmers Association national president Victor Oppong called for immediate intervention to save the country’s poultry industry from collapse.
“The poultry industry is on the verge of collapse, people are selling their poultry prematurely and it is high time that immediate intervention was taken,” he said on Wednesday.
Mr. Oppong speaking on JoyNews’ AM show, said the industry faces a challenge related to feed, especially corn, soybeans and wheat bran, “So this is how the poultry industry is suffering.”
Maize, he said, takes up around 50 to 60 percent of the food input, soybeans take up around 15 to 20 percent, leaving the remaining percentage for wheat bran and other minor foods.
“So as the price of corn goes up, it affects everything and that’s how the industry suffers. I can say that it is not only suffering but on the verge of collapse, ”he stressed.
According to him, the cost of animal feed has risen by more than 100 percent, forcing farmers to adjust egg prices.
“Last year we were buying 50 kilos of corn at 65.00 Gh ¢ but as we speak now we are buying the same 50 kilos at 150.00 Gh ¢ which is an increase of over 100%” , did he declare.
Mr. Victor Oppong added: “Soybeans, which cost around 140.00 Gh ¢ for 50 kilos, are now worth 210.00 Gh ¢ and wheat bran, which cost around 15.00 Gh ¢ – 20.00 Gh ¢ for 25 kilos, is now 45.00 Gh ¢. So, now you can see that the basic or main ingredient of the food has increased by over 100 percent, which is why we have adjusted the price of eggs.
A single egg that was sold at 1.00 Gh ¢ in the past three years, the president noted, yielded a profit margin of about 8.00 difference between farm and end consumer, because the case of 30 coins was sold at 22.00 Gh ¢.
“But we all know that with egg trays the profit margin is between 1.00Gh ¢ and 2.00Gh ¢, so even though we increased the prices by that margin, I don’t think that will affect the end consumer. “
Mr. Oppong noted that “as we speak, an egg is sold for 1.20 Gh ¢ pesewas, some Gh ¢ 1.50 pesewas which come in at 36.00 Gh ¢ and 45.00 Gh ¢. So I don’t think it’s a problem if we’re also trying to adjust our prices because of the food that has gone up in price by 100%.
He therefore appealed to the government to urgently provide fertilizer to farmers to help with maize production.
“We implore the government, now I understand that they don’t even get the fertilizers which is also a challenge, so the government should try as much as possible to provide the fertilizers to the farmers so that they can also use them for produce corn for the local industry.
The problem, he said, arose when neighboring countries started to “buy our maize from their different countries and we thought they would be stopped, but we allowed them to buy all the maize from that country. “.
He said that although the yield has increased thanks to the Plant for Food and Jobs program, “we have allowed neighboring countries to buy the maize and we in turn are suffering and later we had to import maize. as the market grows “.
“As we speak, people are trying to bring corn from Ivory Coast and other countries but the prices are still very high and this is how it affects the industry except that the wheat bran is produced locally but sometimes you won’t even get the local. We have to import ”, revealed Mr. Victor Oppong.
“I understand that they also export to various countries, so that’s how the poultry industry suffers. If the cost of food increases, it affects everything in the industry, ”he lamented.
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