Ghana to export guinea fowl
Mr Sylvester Adongo, a former Northern Regional Director of the Ministry of Food and Agriculture has said Ghana stood the chance of exporting guinea fowl to neighbouring countries.
He said the investment being made by the SADA/Asongtaba Guinea Fowl Production and Marketing Company Limited would ensure that the country was able to achieve that goal.
“If we work hard enough, we should be able to export guinea fowl to other countries in the next five years,” he told the GNA in an interview.
Mr Adongo said the country should be expecting an explosion in guinea fowl production in the next two years that would meet local demand and added that Ghanaians should switch from eating imported poultry to guinea fowl which has no fat content.
Mr Adongo, who is a consultant to the SADA/Asongtaba Guinea Fowl Company, appealed to farmers and young people to go into the production of guinea fowl.
He said the Northern Region produces half a million of the bird and Upper East and Upper West regions together produce not less than 1.5 million guinea fowls annually.
Mr Faisal Webre Keliou, the Project Manager of the SADA/Asongtaba Guinea Fowl Production and Marketing Company Limited, said the company started operating in the guinea fowl business this year and has so far engaged more than 1,500 youths.
He said jobs would be created in egg collection, brooding, hatching, production and marketing and that the project would engage many more persons as it expanded its operations.
Mr Keliou said critical areas such as distribution, processing of the meat would require persons to be engaged and urged interested individuals and farmers to get involved.
Mr Ben Awuni Asatanga, a guinea fowl farmer based in Nalerigu in the East Mamprusi District, told the GNA that each year he produces 10,000 guinea fowls for the market and earns not less than GH¢15,000 after investing GH¢3,000 in the business.
He said he had devoted much of his youthful days in guinea fowl production and had acquired three houses and other properties and added that the demand for the guinea fowl should encourage more people to go into its production.
Source: GNA