Ministry seeks legal backing to restrict soya bean export

The Ministry of Food and Agriculture (MoFA) is seeking legal backing to stop the export of soya beans.

Currently, the ministry is liaising with the Ministry of Justice and the Attorney General’s Office, as well as the Ministry of Trade and Industry for the Legislative Instrument (LI) to that effect.

Additionally, the ministry is working with the Ministry of Trade and Industry to compel those exporting non-traditional products such as soya beans to return the proceeds to the country.

The Minister of Food and Agriculture, Dr Owusu Afriyie Akoto, disclosed this when he met with poultry farmers in the Bono Region at Dormaa Ahenkro last Monday.

Poultry industry

The minister, who is on a tour of the region, observed that sustained production of soya beans was crucial to revamp the poultry industry in the country.

He said with the LI, the Ministry of Food and Agriculture hoped to get the Ministry of Trade and Industry to ensure that anyone who wished to export soya beans must first get a clearance from the Minister of Food and Agriculture.

It was not for nothing that soya bean was included in the crops under the Planting for Food and Jobs (PFJ), Dr Akoto said, explaining that the beans were meant to ensure uninterrupted poultry feed supply in the country.

He reminded the poultry farmers of their strategic role in the Rearing for Food and Jobs, indicating that the $350 million spent annually importing poultry was “totally unnecessary and unwarranted”.

According to him “some 20 years ago, Ghana was an exporter of poultry,” and expressed the government’s determination to bring the industry back to its glorious days.

Veterinary laboratory

Welcoming the minister and his entourage, the Municipal Chief Executive of Dormaa, Mr Drissa Oauttara, appealed to the ministry to complete an abandoned veterinary laboratory begun over 12 years ago.

He said since the municipality was one of the major producers of poultry in the country, there was the need for a veterinary laboratory in the area to attend to sick birds.

Low production

At a similar meeting with farmers at Techiman in the Bono East Region, Dr Akoto bemoaned the low production of soya in the region even though the potential was there.

The minister urged the farmers to take advantage of the opportunities that the PFJ had brought to upscale the cultivation of the crop.