Poultry farmers battling to survive

In small remote communities of Ghana, poultry farming is everything. It is the mainstay of rural communities, providing the major and -- in some cases -- the only source of income for many inhabitants.

But failure of successive governments to come out with clear policies that will create much protection for the local poultry industry has triggered the import surge of frozen chicken from the United States of America (USA) and the European Union (EU).

Worse still, imported chicken is being sold at below the cost of local chicken, and farmers in Ghana simply cannot compete -- resulting in the collapse of dozens of farms and the loss of hundreds of jobs.

Last year alone, the EU, USA and Brazil together exported over 200,000 tonnes of frozen chicken to Ghana, valued at US$200 million >>> more