Ghanaian Poultry farmers have lamented of the low demand of eggs and other poultry products in the country.
The Executive Director of Africa Education Watch has indicated that the Government of Ghana since January this year has been feeding the Free Senior High School beneficiaries with imported Chinese mackerel instead of the local eggs.
“Senior High Schools before covid-19 were doing at least 3 eggs a week. This translated into 150,000 crates/week (about 3.6 million pieces of eggs).” Mr Kofi Asare said
According to the Executive Director of Africa Education Watch, the majority of the schools since school reopened are doing one egg a week, a situation he said reduced the demand for eggs by 70% leading to the shut down of poultry farms and laying off labour.
Reacting to the issue, President of the Ghana National Association of Poultry Farmers (GNAPF) Victor Oppong Adjei has said the decision by the government to substitute eggs for mackerel for students under the school feeding program will collapse local egg businesses in the country.
He noted that nutrients in egg is different from the Chinese mackerel imported. He therefore advised Government to reconsider its decision since the reason for the launch of the planting for food and jobs was to push the local famers produce.
“The supply of eggs to schools was helping the poultry industry. But we’re hearing of the importation of mackerel to substitute the eggs, which is very unfortunate. The nutrients in eggs help the brains so you can’t compare mackerels to them. There was no agreement but gov’t said eggs should be added to the school feeding program. It was last week we heard that the eggs are being substituted with mackerel. Which is unfortunate.” He told Starr FM