Government has announced plans to develop Ghana’s entire poultry production value chain as part of efforts to strengthen local production, support domestic businesses and expand employment opportunities in the agricultural sector.
The initiative, outlined in the 2027 Budget Statement and Economic Policy, will cover the production process from breeder farms and hatcheries to day-old chicks, animal feed, vaccines, veterinary laboratories, modern poultry houses, processing plants, cold storage and retail distribution.
Presenting the Budget to Parliament on Thursday, November 12, Finance Minister Dr Cassiel Ato Forson said commercially capable anchor farms would work alongside existing small and medium-sized producers and organised outgrowers to expand domestic poultry production.
He said the programme would also involve institutional buyers, retailers and hospitality businesses, which would use transparent multi-year contracts to purchase locally produced chicken.
“Ghana will build the full value chain, from breeder farms and hatcheries to day-old chicks, feed, vaccines, veterinary laboratories, modern poultry houses, processing plants, cold storage and retail distribution,” Dr Forson told Parliament.
The government is also targeting the high cost of poultry feed, which the Finance Minister identified as a major production challenge.
According to him, feed accounts for between 60 and 70 per cent of poultry production costs, making increased local production of maize and soya bean essential to the industry’s development.
To address this, government plans to establish commercial maize and soya bean production clusters that will supply feed mills directly through bankable contracts.
Dr Forson said reducing feed costs would strengthen both the poultry and aquaculture industries.
“Lower feed costs will strengthen poultry and aquaculture at the same time. One productive chain will reinforce another,” he stated.
The programme will bring together commercial farms, smaller producers, feed manufacturers, processors and market operators under an integrated production and distribution system.
The poultry intervention forms part of the government’s broader US$3 billion Commercial Agriculture pillar under the New Economy programme, which seeks to expand domestic food production, reduce dependence on imports and create employment through agricultural and agro-industrial development.
