US$200m chicken import bill puts local poultry production in focus – Forson

Finance Minister Dr Cassiel Ato Forson has questioned Ghana’s annual spending of about US$200 million on chicken imports, arguing that local maize and soybean production could support a stronger domestic poultry industry.

Speaking in an interview on Thursday after presenting the 2027 Budget to Parliament, he identified agricultural modernisation as essential to reducing food imports.

“Why should we be importing about $200 million of chicken every year?” he asked.

“Why, why can't we use our land to grow soybean and maize to feed the poultry industry?”

Dr Forson said Ghana’s land, water resources and youthful population offered a competitive advantage. However, he argued that the existing approach to agriculture could not meet the country’s needs.

“The current agriculture, peasant agriculture, cannot solve the problems.”

He put Ghana’s annual food import bill at about US$3.5 billion and questioned continued dependence on foreign supplies of products the country could produce.

“We spend about 3.5 billion United States dollars yearly to bring foodstuffs into our country. It cannot continue.”

His comments followed a question about planned spending on commercial agriculture and agribusiness, including poultry, maize, soybean, rice, oil palm, sugar, aquaculture and vegetables.

The minister also raised concerns about fish imports and reliance on neighbouring Burkina Faso for onions and tomatoes.

“We spend hundreds of millions of dollars every year to bring in vegetables. Pwalugu can be the solution.”

Beyond food production, Dr Forson said the government wanted more of Ghana’s cocoa processed domestically.

He argued that the longstanding model of buying beans and shipping them abroad allowed other countries to capture the benefits of value addition.

“We are not saying don't come and buy our cocoa beans, but if you are company out there, come and buy our cocoa beans, but add value here in Ghana.”

Dr Forson said a new Cocoa Board Act provided for 50% local processing. He indicated that a legislative instrument would set out a timeline to reach 100% by 2030.

Addressing questions about processing capacity, he disclosed discussions with Dangote over a proposed investment in Ghana.

“Dangote has reached out to use Ghana as a hub to process cocoa locally.”

He said the discussions concerned processing 500,000 metric tonnes of cocoa in Ghana. The parties were reviewing the terms of a proposed contract.