The Ghana National Association of Poultry Farmers (GNAPF) has welcomed the government’s decision to ban the exportation of maize and soybeans.
Government restricted the exportation of two important commodities, soya bean, and maize from the country. According to the Food and Agric Ministry, this forms part of measures to ensure food security and increase local poultry and livestock production.
The Plant Protection and Regulatory Services Directorate (PPRSD), has stopped issuing phytosanitary certificates for the export of both commodities.
This follows a directive from the Ministry of Trade and Industry (MoTI) to restrict their export to ensure the availability of the product, whose production is subsidized.
Speaking on A1 Radio’s Day Break Upper East Show, said government effort in this direction is commendable because “feed alone constitutes 65 – 70 per cent of production costs. When you take the feed component, maize alone constitutes 60 per cent while soybeans constitute about 3 per cent. These two materials, if they are not there or the prices are high, it affects cost of production”.
He said many farmers have folded up because of the unavailability of feed materials for their birds.
While commending the government for the directive, Mr Dasseh called on the government to also consider regulating the prices of the material to ensure that poultry farmers are able to buy them to feed their birds.
Meanwhile, consumers of eggs would be expected to pay more for their fix of the protein. It is however unclear what the margin of increase is. This is because the Association of Poultry Farmers and the Egg Sellers Association have been unable to reach a consensus on what the price of a crate of same-sized eggs would be sold across the country.
A1radioonline.com|101.1MHz|Mark Kwasi Ahumah Smith|Ghana
