Ghana Weighs US$200 Million Chicken Import Bill Against Untapped Feed and Land Potential

Finance Minister Dr. Cassiel Ato Forson has challenged Ghana's reliance on imported chicken, questioning why a country with vast arable land and a youthful population spends approximately US$200 million annually on poultry imports while local maize and soybean production could feed a thriving domestic industry.

Speaking in an interview on Thursday, November 12, 2026, after presenting the 2027 Budget to Parliament, Dr. Forson framed agricultural modernisation as central to reducing the country's food import bill, which he put at about US$3.5 billion annually.

"Why should we be importing about $200 million of chicken every year?" he asked. "Why can't we use our land to grow soybean and maize to feed the poultry industry?"

A Sector Running at a Fraction of Its Potential

The minister's figures sit at the conservative end of industry estimates. Ghana's poultry imports have been valued at between US$280 million and US$400 million in recent trade data, depending on the source and period . Domestic production covers only a small fraction of demand, which is estimated at 300,000 to 460,000 metric tonnes annually . Frozen chicken imports supply as much as 80 to 95 percent of the market .

The structural weaknesses are well documented: high feed costs driven by expensive maize and soybean, limited access to day-old chicks, inadequate hatchery and processing infrastructure, and cold-chain gaps that undermine local producers' ability to compete on price with foreign suppliers .

Dr. Forson's prescription—using Ghanaian land to grow feed inputs—targets one of the sector's most persistent cost drivers. Feed accounts for the majority of poultry production costs, and Ghana's soybean and maize output has historically fallen short of what a scaled-up poultry industry would require.

Pwalugu as a Vegetable and Feed Hub

The minister also pointed to the Pwalugu Multipurpose Dam as a potential solution for vegetable imports, which he said cost "hundreds of millions of dollars every year." The 2027 Budget commits US$1 billion to the dam, which is expected to irrigate more than 25,000 hectares for year-round vegetable production and generate 70 megawatts of hydropower for agro-industrial activities . The first phase is scheduled for completion by early 2029, with full delivery by December 2030 .

The project has faced its own difficulties. A previous contractor left Ghana without completing work, and the matter has been referred to the Attorney General for investigation . Whether the new funding commitment translates into delivered infrastructure remains to be seen.

Investment Momentum, But Structural Gaps Remain

The government has not been idle on poultry. In August 2026, it signed a US$270 million heads-of-terms agreement for an integrated poultry value chain covering feed, hatcheries, farming, processing, and cold-chain infrastructure, with projections of more than 1,000 direct jobs and 2,500 indirect opportunities . The "Nkoko Nketenkete" initiative has distributed millions of day-old chicks across the regions, with procurement of an additional 4 million chicks and 500,000 broiler birds underway .

But the gap between ambition and output remains wide. A Poultry Sector Master Plan, developed with the Ministry of Food and Agriculture and Agri-Impact Limited under the Mastercard Foundation's HAPPY Programme, concluded that Ghana would need a tenfold increase in domestic production to displace imports . Between December 2023 and December 2025, the HAPPY Programme supported 4.6 million birds and created about 8,000 jobs—meaningful progress, but a fraction of what full import substitution would require .

The Cocoa Parallel

Dr. Forson's poultry remarks came alongside his renewed push for cocoa value addition. He confirmed that a new Cocoa Board Act mandates 50 percent local processing, with a Legislative Instrument to set the timetable for reaching 100 percent by 2030. He also disclosed that Nigerian industrialist Aliko Dangote has reached out to use Ghana as a processing hub, with discussions underway over 500,000 metric tonnes.

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

The common thread in both cocoa and poultry is the same: Ghana has the raw materials, the land, and the demand. What it has lacked, Dr. Forson argues, is the processing capacity and the political will to move beyond peasant agriculture.

"The current agriculture, peasant agriculture, cannot solve the problems," he said.

As Parliament begins deliberations on the 2027 Budget, the question for the poultry sector is whether the US$200 million annual outflow—and the feed, hatcheries, and cold chains it would take to stop it—will finally receive the sustained investment that a decade of initiatives has yet to deliver.