By Amoro Kebbeh
A poultry farmer called Salifu Jarju has lamented to Mansa Banko Online, how the importation into this country of poultry products, is seriously hampering local poultry businesses.
According to him, demand for imported poultry meat and eggs is increasing because of the low price, while that of the locally produced ones is low.
He made the lamentation in an interview with this medium on Tuesday, 26 November, 2019, noting that poultry products-meat and eggs-are in high demands in The Gambia, as “almost every household” in the country consumes the imported products.
Mr. Jarju, who is also a caretaker at Aji Sukai Ndateh Memorial Senior Secondary School, located at Bakau Mile 7, just next to Gambia Radio and Television Services (GRTS), took this reporter on a conducted tour of the poultry house which has four hundred (400) layer birds.
He wants the government of President Adama Barrow to support the local industry, for it to produce more meat and eggs for local consumptions.
Jarju observed, “If you go the supermarkets, mini-markets and shops, you will find poultry meat and eggs for sale.” But he said little is being done to increase the cutting of importation of poultry products into the country.
Jarju posited that the government of the day needs to look into the plights of young poultry farmers and support them with hatchery machines, poultry feeds, among other materials, needed for poultry farming.
“As far as the demand is high, we definitely need support to increase our production and marketing to make it cheaper for Gambians to buy local poultry products,” the poultry farmer recommended.
On why local poultry products are more expensive than the imported ones, Jarju attributed it to the fact that, the local poultry feeds are very expensive because they import the feeds from Senegal.
For chicken poultry feed, he said it’s not easy to get it in the Gambia, as there is only one factory in the country that manufactures poultry feeds.
He said most of the time, they have to travel to Senegal and book in advance so as to be able to get poultry chicken feeds, and later receive the supply. This is to avoid the shortage of feeds in the Gambia, as he explained.
In the interview, Jarju gave background information about the poultry business which their school ventured into since 2016.
Poultry farmer Mr. Salifu Jarju
In reply to the reporter’s queries as to the number of crates of egg they produce daily, in the farm, Jarju revealed, “we only collect nine crates per day; but if we have poultry feed as the way we wanted, our production would be much higher than nine crates per day”.
Jarju also talked about the marketing aspect, pointing out that the marketing of eggs “is very slow, because the eggs that are brought from Europe overshadow the local ones.
He reasoned that this is simply, because the imported eggs are cheaper than the local eggs. Jarju further told Mansa Banko online that because of the high demand of imported eggs which is cheaper, they do incur losses in their sales, decrying also that their sales are low and they didn’t have facilities for storage or cooling off, to avoid spoilage.
In concluding, the poultry farmer-cum-caretaker called on the Barrow administration to come up with mechanism that would support the local poultry farmers and reduce the importation eggs and meat.
