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The President of the Ghana National Association of Poultry Farmers, Victor Oppong Adjei, has disclosed that some members are leaving the business due to the high cost of feed.
According to the National Chairman, those selling their birds with the intention to quit have been incurring losses and cannot afford to feed the animals.
“A lot of farmers have sold their birds and they have made up their minds not to pick any new birds anymore due to losses…according to them, it is better to exit the venture than to invest and continuously lose out”, he said.
Speaking on Angel FM’s Anopa Bofo Morning Show on Wednesday, May 4, Mr. Oppong Adjei attributed the losses to hike in the essential components of poultry feed which consists of maize, soya beans and wheat brand.
Lamenting the hike in feed prices, he said that the price of a 50 Kilogram of maize has gone up from GHc55 in 2020 to GHc180 in 2022 which signifies a 277 percentage increment. Soya beans has jumped from GHc150 to GHc305 [over 200%] and wheat brand from GHc20 to GHc53 [over 250%].
“Feed prices have gone up and poultry farmers are just labouring in vain everyday. I know a farmer who loses GHc1,000 daily…he feeds 8,000 birds with a ton of feed”, he told host, Kofi Adoma Nwanwani.
Victor Oppong Adjei also explained that the increase in egg prices is due to the high costs in feeding the birds.
The Association of Poultry Farmers earlier announced that prices of eggs will shoot up after Muslims finish marking the Ramadan month.
Leadership of the Association proposed that the small sizes will go up from GHc23 to GHc30 per crate, while the unsorted will increase from GHc25 to GHc32 per crate.
“I know a farmer who feeds his 8,000 birds with a ton of feed so if you have more birds you divide and subtract and know what the birds will eat. What we have realised is that when we sell the eggs, we do not generate enough revenue to cater for the feed costs and that implies losses to the farmers.”
Mr. Adjei added that “another farmer at Dormaa who has 300,000 birds is now left with 60,000 and even with that feeding them is a problem.”
The poultry industry suffered a major setback at the beginning of the year due to the outbreak of bird flu in selected regions. In the Bono Region, over 9,000 birds were lost to the disease while over 10,000 birds were destroyed in Western Region.
