The Ghana National Association of Poultry Farmers has announced that prices of eggs on the market will go up after Muslims finish marking the Ramadan month.
Eggs will see a 30 per cent increase for the small sizes and a 28 per cent increase for the unsorted, the Association said.
The leadership of the Association says the small sizes will go up from ¢23 to ¢30 per crate, while the unsorted will increase from ¢25 to ¢32 per crate.
This means that a single unit of an egg at retail that now sells at ¢1.50 could also see some upward adjustment.
National Chairman, Victor Oppong Adjei, says the farmers are compelled to adjust the prices because the high cost of feed severely impacts their operations.
“…new upward adjustment of egg prices effective immediately after the Ramadan, this has resulted from the high cost of feed that is now disturbing the operations of the poultry farmers.”
They observed in 2020, Maize prices have gone from 65 cedis for 50 kilos to now ¢180, Soya Bean, which was ¢150 per kilo, is now 305 cedis per kilo, and Wheat Brand, which was sold for ¢20, is now ¢53.
The development follows a JoyNews documentary titled, ‘The Broken Chain’, which exposed how the poultry industry and players in the Soya Value Chain are struggling due to continuous hikes in feed prices.
All these critical ingredients of the poultry industry’s feed component have increased by more than 200 per cent over a short period.
They observed that most of their members are either selling the majority of their birds to be able to stay in business or are switching completely.
Mr Oppong Adjei says the move is necessitated to help sustain the dying poultry industry.
“Poultry industry is all about the feed – maize, soya and wheat brand – if any one of these is not available, there will be no feed, and there will be no poultry. So, therefore, we are pleading with the public to accept these new prices of eggs,” he told Prince Appiah in an interview.