Fowl sellers in four major markets in the Greater Accra Region have stated that the recent outbreak of Bird Flu has no impact on sales but rather the general economic conditions in the country is the cause of low sales.
According to the traders, before the announcement of the outbreak of bird flu, sales have gone down relatively low due to high cost of feeds, transportation and general economic conditions.
This was made know after myrepubliconeline.com, toured some parts of the capital city to ascertain the effect of the bird flu outbreak on sales of fowls.
The four major markets visited by the Online News Portal are Dome, Mallam, Kaneshie and finally Kantamanto Markets where sellers of fowls revealed that cost of poultry feeds for fowls keep going high.
One of the members of Fowl Sellers Association, Ghana and chairman of the Mallam Market fowl sellers, Mr Mark Atampugre said the bird flu can only affect sales 10% but the major factor has to do with the economic conditions in the country.
Mr Atampugre stated further that the outbreak of the flu is only a small fraction in terms of the numbers and therefore cannot influence the sales but the cost of feed, maize, transport and living conditions are the factors.
“The area in which we always have issues with the government has to do with support. All government support is directed at poultry farmers neglecting the other section which is the selling of the birds,” he stated.
He said bird flu is not the only disease that affects fowls but diseases such as Newcastle, Coccidiosis and Gomorrah are types of bird diseases.
Mr John Agambaa, a fowl seller at Kaneshie Market also bemoaned the fact that the public announcement of the outbreak would rather affect sales than the disease itself because since 2007 when Ghana first announced the outbreak of bird flu, Ghanaians have been living with it.
Mr Agambaa said there was no need on the part of the government to announce the outbreak but rather deploy the veterinary officers to the affected farmers and deal with it.
“The sales of fowls have really gone down, because at first I use to sell between 450 to 500 birds a week but now sales have reduced drastically to a mere 20 to 30 birds and that is because ofΒ economic hardship in the country.” he noted
At Kantamanto, a fowl seller, Mr Emmanuel Akayuure said the general condition of sales has nothing to do with bird flu but rather people are talking about hardship and it’s not only fowl sellers but it cut across every sector of the economy.
Mr Robert Ayamdoo said the prices of the fowl at wholesale have increased from GHc17.00 to GHc19.00 and from GHc 22.00 to GHc26.00 and now sells at a market price of GHc35.00 to Δ’Hc 40.00
A poultry farmer at Mankessim in the Central Region, Mr Eric Tieku also bemoaned the high cost of feeding and the shortage of maize which is the essential commodity for their business
