Ghana’s poultry market is overwhelmingly import-driven, with 75–80% of chicken consumed locally sourced from abroad, mainly frozen cuts from Europe, the United States and Brazil underscoring a deepening dependence on external supply.
That reliance translates into an estimated 270,000 to 300,000 metric tonnes of poultry imports each year, feeding into a national import bill that climbed to about $400 million in 2024.
Speaking on the final day of the two-day international conference held in Accra by the Ghana Export-Import Bank (GEXIM), poultry farmer Prof. Kwame Gyan said the country’s heavy reliance on imports is not just a supply gap, but effectively “exporting Ghanaian jobs and hard currency.”
He noted that despite strong domestic demand, local producers remain unable to scale due to persistent constraints in inputs, infrastructure and access to finance.
Breaking the Cost Barrier: Feed, Hatcheries and Infrastructure
One of the most recurrent structural challenges identified by industry players, echoed in Prof. Gyan’s remarks, is the cost and availability of key inputs. Feed accounts for more than 70 % of production cost for poultry farmers, a burden compounded by high maize and soybean prices and limited local feed milling capacity.
The sector’s hatchery capacity also remains limited. Ghana imports most of its day‑old chicks from Europe, a process beset by losses, logistics costs and unreliable supply chains, as Prof. Gyan illustrated through his own farm’s experiences at Accra’s airport. These constraints extend to cold chain and processing infrastructure, which local producers cite as significant impediments to scaling supply and capturing value beyond the farm gate.
GEXIM Bank’s Strategic Pivot: Financing Value Chain Scale‑Up
Considering these conditions, Ghana Exim Bank is repositioning itself to play a catalytic role in import substitution and agribusiness development. Recent policy statements from the Bank’s leadership spotlight a concerted strategy to direct financing toward poultry producers, feed mills, hatcheries, processing facilities and cold storage projects.
Under its renewed mandate, the Bank is crafting targeted financing instruments that link lending to clear production‑related outcomes and milestones, combine credit guarantees and blended finance structures, and tighten credit appraisal processes to mitigate risk and minimise non‑performing exposures.
The strategy aligns with government priorities on import substitution and industrialisation, and acknowledges that the poultry value chain can generate significant domestic value, connecting maize and soy producers with feed manufacturers, enabling hatchery expansion, creating processing capacity and developing integrated cold chain logistics.
Sector Voices Call for Integrated Policy and Capital Interventions
Industry stakeholders contend that financing alone will not suffice without policy coordination and structural interventions. Successful poultry economies in Côte d’Ivoire and South Africa, highlighted by Prof. Gyan in his address, combine coherent policy frameworks, targeted investment incentives and institutional coordination, factors local farmers believe are currently absent or under‑leveraged in Ghana.
Many advocates have urged passage and effective implementation of a national poultry master plan that addresses animal health regulation, import controls, and standards enforcement, complementing financing mechanisms with regulatory certainty.
Moreover, there are calls for longer‑term capital and concessional financing, including lower interest rates for the sector, and grant‑backed investments in public goods such as feed research, renewable power for farms, and manure‑to‑value technologies that can improve sustainability and competitiveness, points Prof. Gyan specifically highlighted during the GEXIM event.
Towards Self‑Sufficiency and Competitive Local Supply
Government initiatives such as the Feed Ghana Programme and emerging sector trade plans aim to progressively increase domestic poultry sufficiency, with targets that could see higher local output over the remainder of the decade.
But analysts warn that without aligned financing, infrastructure development and policy coherence, Ghana risks perpetuating a model where cheap imports crowd out domestic producers, costing foreign exchange, limiting job creation and inhibiting the development of a robust agro‑industrial base.After a decade of supporting productive sectors and strengthening local value chains, Ghana Exim Bank is expanding its commitment to the poultry industry, bringing new light to a sector long weighed down by import dependency, while aiming to boost domestic production, reduce risks in the sector, create jobs across the value chain, and drive sustainable agro-industrial growth.
