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Ghana's poultry sector is at a crossroads.
Once a vibrant pillar of national food security and rural livelihoods, the industry has suffered a prolonged decline—driven by poor policy coordination, unregulated imports, escalating feed costs and a breakdown in value chain linkages.
The consequences are striking: today, Ghana imports over 90 per cent of its poultry meat, and commercial broiler production has collapsed.
Despite this grim picture, the sector remains a powerful engine for growth—interlinked with crop farming (especially maize and soybean), nutrition, agribusiness development and youth employment.
With the right investment climate, policy direction and stakeholder alignment, Ghana’s poultry sector can be revitalised.
This is the driving force behind the urgent need for the Ghana Poultry Sector Masterplan—a stakeholder-led, evidence-based roadmap aimed at restoring competitiveness, achieving import substitution and enhancing sector resilience.
Ghana’s poultry industry thrived in the 1960s and 1970s, producing all national demand and even exporting to neighbouring countries.
This boom was fueled by government-backed commercial farming, import-friendly policies on key poultry inputs and active extension services.
However, the early 1990s marked a turning point. Under structural adjustment programmes, Ghana liberalised its poultry trade regime, exposing local producers to low-cost, heavily subsidised imports of poultry by-products from the EU, Brazil and the U.S.
By 2000, most large commercial farms had shut down or were operating far below capacity. Today, the market share of local producers has plummeted, with most locally produced chicken consumed only during festive seasons.
Ghana, once a net poultry exporter, has become structurally dependent on imported frozen chicken.
The Poultry Masterplan initiative seeks to respond to this crisis with a clear vision: to reposition the sector as a competitive, inclusive and resilient contributor to national food and economic security.
But to be effective, the Masterplan must avoid repeating past top-down policy failures.
It must be driven by stakeholders—those who operate farms, run hatcheries, produce feed, process birds, distribute inputs, finance the value chain and regulate the industry.
This participatory approach is essential for five reasons:
1. Local knowledge matters – Farmers and businesses understand the real costs, constraints and missed opportunities.
2. Buy-in ensures action – A plan co-created by stakeholders is more likely to be implemented.
3. Ownership builds accountability – Shared responsibility reduces blame-shifting and fosters problem-solving.
4. Policy coherence – Stakeholders can help harmonise regulations and improve enforcement.
5. Investor confidence – A sector with a unified strategy is more attractive to investors and donors.
The Masterplan should establish ambitious but realistic targets by 2030, with full stakeholder buy-in, such as:
• Achieving 30 per cent domestic broiler market share (up from under 10 per cent today)
• Reducing production costs by 15 per cent, focusing on feed and day-old chicks (DOCs)
• Doubling the number of poultry SMEs accessing formal finance
• Strengthening biosecurity and quality assurance systems
• Developing a fully integrated broiler roadmap with clear investment benchmarks
Recent diagnostics show Ghana's poultry sector struggles primarily due to:
• Feed costs – Over 60 per cent of total production cost is driven by maize, soybean and fishmeal prices.
• Breeding – A lack of local breeding stock undermines productivity.
• DOCs – Heavy reliance on imported DOCs raises costs; local hatcheries lack certification and trust.
• Processing and packaging – Limited cold chains, weak branding and poor distribution depress demand.
• Unfair import competition – Imported surplus/byproduct poultry is sold below local production cost.
• Limited financing – Most SMEs lack collateral and tailored financial instruments. Insurance is negligible.
• Regulatory gaps – Weak enforcement of biosecurity and quality standards undermines trust.
• Land tenure constraints – Insecure land rights remain a major bottleneck for scaling commercial poultry operations, especially for siting breeder farms, hatcheries, processing units and feed production infrastructure.
• Market and distribution inefficiencies – Instead of vilifying importers, we must engage them as business partners and demonstrate the case for sourcing locally.
To build a competitive and resilient poultry industry, Ghana must draw practical lessons from countries that have taken bold steps to protect and transform their domestic sectors.
Two examples—Nigeria and South Africa—offer valuable models for benchmarking policy, investment and institutional reform.
Nigeria: Protecting the Market and Stimulating Investment
Nigeria enforced a poultry import ban and rolled out domestic production incentives.
Though implementation was uneven, this protectionist strategy spurred private investment, job creation and improved processing capacity.
Crucially, Nigeria advanced its poultry sector despite higher feed costs, poorer energy infrastructure and high electricity costs, and inconsistent enforcement across states.
Deliberate policy, targeted incentives and local sourcing enabled Nigeria to overcome these challenges and attract foreign direct investment (FDI).
The rise of integrated poultry producers and modern distribution networks reflects the power of coordinated government action backed by private sector confidence.
South Africa: Managed trade and technological efficiency
South Africa is Africa’s most efficient poultry producer, benefiting from:
• Managed trade policies (tariffs and quotas) that shield local markets,
• Strong investment in biosecurity, compliance and cold chain infrastructure,
• Technologically advanced production systems.
Despite unfair trade competition—especially from EU imports at below-market prices—South Africa maintains stability through sound policy, industry standards and strong producer associations.
Its model shows how public-private collaboration can drive enforcement, competitiveness and job creation within a formalised value chain.
From both countries, Ghana can adapt the following:
• Apply deliberate trade measures to protect local producers during scale-up,
• Address competitiveness through governance, coordination and policy clarity,
• Create a stable investment environment to attract capital,
• Prioritise biosecurity, traceability and quality assurance,
• Strengthen industry associations for regulation, advocacy and government engagement.
Stakeholder forums must be held nationwide, with full media engagement, to build consensus and ensure regional representation.
Expected deliverables:
• A 10-year strategic Poultry Masterplan
• A broiler industry development roadmap
• A sector policy and regulation matrix
• A monitoring & evaluation framework with KPIs
• An investment prospectus and risk mitigation framework
• A governance and implementation structure
Even consumers must play a role. Demand must shift away from large, inefficient broilers to smaller birds produced more competitively.
Consumer preference must adapt to support sector viability.
The writer is an agribusiness enthusiast.
