There won’t likely be any decrease in the cost of poultry or poultry products for Ghanaians. This is due to the insistence of poultry farmers that a drop in fuel prices alone does not indicate a material decrease in their cost of production.
It would be recalled that during the last quarter of 2022, the prices of fuel reached an all-time high. A litre of diesel was selling at an average of Ghc23.00 at service stations across the country with petrol retailing for an average of Ghc19. In the last 3 pricing windows of the year however, prices of fuel fell significantly at the pumps. Many Ghanaians saw the reduction in the prices of fuel as reason enough for significant reduction in the prices of basic goods and services but the poultry farmers disagree.
When George Dassah, Northern Regional Chairman of the Poultry Farmers Association spoke to Mark Smith on A1 Radio’s Day Break Upper East Show, he mentioned that reduction of fuel prices does almost nothing to positively affect their cost of production and so it would be unfair for Ghanaians to demand price reductions.
“When the price of fuel is reducing, is the price of inputs for poultry production also reducing? That is the question we should ask. We were buying maize in Tamale for Ghc400, right now, go to Tamale market, it is Ghc500. There has not been a reduction. We you take soya meal, a bag is Ghc600 and you need 6 bags of maize, 6 bags of soya, 1 bag of concentrate to be able to mix 1 tonne of feed. In 2020, when we were to mix a tonne of feed, you spent about Ghc2,100. In 2021, it went up to Ghc4,300 per tonne. As we speak, if you want to mix a tonne of feed, it is Ghc7,425. While price of fuel may have gone down, the cost of production; the cost of input has not gone down. If you are asking poultry farmers to reduce their prices, you are asking them to fold up.”
Mr. Dassah insisted that until all the raw materials needed for producing poultry feed reduces, it would be impractical for poultry farmers to reduce the prices of their final products.
Source: A1radioonline.com|101.1MHz|Mark Kwasi Ahumah Smith|Ghana
