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China-Africa Trade Information Service
info.afrindex.com
China-Africa Trade Information Service
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Commercial poultry production in Ghana can be divided into large-scale (over 50,000 birds), medium-scale (10,000 – 50,000 birds) and small-scale (less than 10,000 birds) enterprises.
Domestic commercial farms are privately owned by individuals or a family. According to the Ghana Poultry Project (GPP) here are 29 large scale commercial poultry farms currently in Ghana and mostly found in the Ashanti region (13), Brong Ahafo (12) and Greater Accra region (4). These form about 20 per cent of the total poultry sector, producing mainly eggs. Most operate their own feed-mills. Some maintain a hatchery and parent stock. The level of biosecurity practice is high in the large-scale category. The medium-scale and the small scale categories comprise 80 per cent of the poultry sector and rely on hatcheries for their day-old chicks and feed mills for their feed. The medium-scale category also produces primarily eggs. Included in the small-scale category are backyard poultry producers who mainly produce broiler birds.
Feed production
Ghana's poultry feed industry has shifted to producing layer feed due to the drop off in domestic broiler production. About 80 per cent of feed produced by commercial feed millers is layer feed. Broiler feed is primarily purchased by small-scale backyard poultry producers.
Feed manufacturers in Ghana can be categorized into commercial feed millers and on-farm self millers. Ghana has about 17 commercial feed mills with a total installed operating capacity of 1,000 metric tons (MT) per day. However, most feed millers are only producing at about 40 to 50 per cent of their capacity due to low demand from the local poultry industry. The average amount of compound feed produced in Ghana is about 10,000MT annually in the past few years. Commercial feed millers supply poultry feed mostly to medium- and small-scale poultry producers because large-scale poultry producers mostly make their own feed. These commercial feed millers produce mainly mash feed, a few produce high feed concentrates, and one feed mill pellets feed.
Most small- and medium-scale poultry producers prefer feed concentrates because it is cheap, convenient and less bulky for transportation.
Opportunities
The increasing local demand for chicken and chicken products and the challenges faced by the sector currently present a lot of opportunities for investment. At the input level, there is high demand for poultry vaccines and feed. Poultry vaccines are not produced locally except the ND I2 vaccine produced to combat New Castle Disease; the rest are all imported to Ghana. This presents an opportunity for investment in poultry vaccines.
The over 70 million birds in Ghana provides a huge opportunity to invest in poultry vaccines production locally. There is also a need for huge investment opportunity in hatcheries and collaborations with existing hatcheries with technical support. The quality of day-old chicks hatched in Ghana is perceived to be low, so most poultry farmers prefer to buy imported day-old chicks, especially layer day-old chicks. In 2018, Ghana imported 511,960 broiler day-old chicks and 7,130,999 layer day-old chicks. Currently, there is limited regulation of local hatcheries. There are also inadequate testing facilities for feed making it difficult for farmers to test locally produced feed. There is also the need for investment in testing facilities for carcass and water due to the low density for such facilities.
At the production level, farmers have very limited knowledge in feed formulation making it difficult to optimize their formulations. More than 80% of poultry farmers in Ghana produce their own feed because of the cost of feed on the market. Feed cost constitutes about 60%-70% of total cost of production, making the unit cost per live bird very high. Partnerships with local training institutions to run short courses for poultry farmers in the areas of bio-security systems, feed formulation, use of veterinary medicines, administering of vaccines, etc. can be explored.
Opportunities also exist in large scale quality feed production. At the processing and marketing level, opportunity exists for processing facilities, value addition to poultry meat, packaging materials, cold chain facilities (transport, storage, etc,). Farmers also have huge installed capacity for bird production, but are constrained by inadequate working capital making them good candidates for outgrowers for either for broiler or layer production.
According to a 2018 report by PwC (Doing Business and Investing in Ghana), Ghana is very committed to supporting and protecting private investors in the agriculture sector as reflected in the policies implemented by successive governments.
Agro-processing businesses are given a five-year tax holiday. There are also location-based tax rebates for agribusinesses engaged in manufacturing and custom duty exemptions for agricultural and industrial machinery and equipment imported for investment purposes. Good investment opportunities exist in the areas of agriculture and agro-processing sector, technological and supporting services.
In the agriculture and agro-processing sectors, the specific investment opportunities include: Production of improved seeds and agro-chemicals (fertilizers, pesticides, weedicides); Processing of some agricultural produce; Production of all agricultural products such as cash crops, horticultural crops and livestock for the national, regional and European Union (EU) markets; Production of veterinary drugs, vaccines and chemicals, feed and feed ingredients for the livestock sector; Fish farming; Production of wood and non-timber forest products (NTFP); Establishment of pulp paper and panel industries; Establishment of wood plantations; and Provision of tree seedlings for plantation species such as teak.
In the area of technological and supporting services; Provision of tractors with basic implements, planters and harvesters; Provision of field and laboratory equipment for quality assurance; Companies to produce and install cold-chain equipment; Supply of machinery to establish hatcheries for day-old chicks; Processing machine manufacturers to supply agro-processing and packaging equipment/plants are some of the investment opportunities. Other investment areas are; Suppliers and financiers of factory building technology; Manufacturers of fishing nets, ropes, netting materials, outboard motors and other fishing inputs to fishers; Development of aquaculture production facilities (cages and earthen ponds); Producers of fish feed; Technological and consulting services; Research and agriculture development services and Inspection and grading according to international standards to make the deliveries acceptable in international markets.
