Poultry: Togo temporarily halts imports to support local producers

Agriculture

Thursday, 25 January 2024 18:12

Poultry: Togo temporarily halts imports to support local producers

(Togo First) - Togo stopped importing frozen poultry, temporarily. According to the Ministry of Agriculture and Livestock, this is to help local producers sell their products as they "are having trouble disposing of stocks of locally produced poultry meat". The ministry noted that more than 70 tons of poultry currency sit idle in the cold rooms of poultry abattoirs.

In a notice dated January 22, 2024, Minister of Agriculture Antoine Lekpa Gbegbeni explained that the pause aims to “foster local production and consumption”. “The embargo’s lifting will be conditional on ‘the exhaustion of outstanding locally-produced stock,” he added.

Besides bolstering local production and consumption, the temporary ban could revive the matter of supporting local producers' competitiveness against foreign competitors, especially relative to production costs.

Ayi Renaud Dossavi

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