Measures needed to stop egg consumption myth

Chairman of the National Association of Poultry Farmers, Mr Victor Oppong Agyei, has called for measures to break the negative myth associated with the consumption of eggs.

“Egg has been tagged with the cholesterol  stigma which has resulted in the stagnation of the per capita egg consumption of Ghana to between 18 and 29 eggs while a country like Mexico could boast a per capita egg consumption of 347,” he stated.

Mr Agyei was addressing a mini-summit in Sunyani aimed at seeking ideas to facilitate the financing of agribusiness investment opportunities in Ghana.

It was on the theme: “Financing the Maize, Rice and Soy chain for enhanced feed and poultry production in Ghana.”

The USAID Financing Ghanaian Agriculture Project (USAID-FinGAP) is a five-year project (2013-2018) with the goal of facilitating finance and investment in the maize, rice and soy supply and value chains in the north of Ghana.

It also aims at improving ancillary services so that agribusiness can operate at full capacity and expand levels of food security in the country.

The project is being implemented by CARNANA, which is part of the Palladium Group, and Connexus.

Challenges in the poultry industry

Addressing the participants in the one-day mini. summit, Mr Agyei said commercial poultry production in the country witnessed a growth rate of over 20 per cent per annum in the 1970s as a result of private enterprise initiatives that saw substantial capital investment supported by enabling government policies, among other measures.

He said the country was, therefore, self-sufficient in poultry (both eggs and meat) until the late 1980s when the adoption of the free trade policy without any strategy to protect the local industries resulted in the loss of the market to imported frozen chicken at a very fast rate.

As if that was not enough, Mr Agyei said the negative perception about the consumption of eggs had added to the woes of poultry farmers in the country.

In the case of chicken meat, he recommended a campaign of product differentiation as a means of educating the public since it had become common knowledge that locally produced chicken quality was about light years away from that which was imported into the country.

He revealed that the poultry industry impacted the American economy with $265.5 billion in 2012, enhancing it to $469.6 billion in 2014 with a tax component of $23.4 billion to 32.9 billion respectively, according to the US Poultry and Egg Association.

“The government’s concentration of improving and increasing the yield of maize and soya would not meet its expectation if there is no developmental growth in the poultry sector to absorb the bumper harvest, thereby creating another challenge to  maize farmers”, he said.

USAID-FinGAP Project

For his part, the Deputy Chief of Party, USAID-FinGAP Ghananian Agriculture Project, Dr Victor Antwi, observed that Ghanaian farmers were capable of producing for the people but they needed proper investment support to do so.

He stated that the project had facilitated over $115 million during the last three-and-a-half years in the maize, rice and soya value chains with majority of funds going to agro input dealers, processors and farmers.

Dr Antwi thanked the financial institutions for financing agribusinesses and the Business Advisory Services Providers and singled out Barclays Bank Ghana Limited for financing agribusiness investments in the maize, rice and soya value chains to the tune of $54 million over the last two-and-a-half years.

Writer’s email: Emmanuel.gyamerah@graphic.com.gh/nanadu63@gmail.com