Ok, so it was never any real secret that a retailer like Shoprite was going to retail only Ghanaian goods. A good number of goods were always going to be flown in from South Africa.
This picture I took says little except when you check the narrative, which is very simple. After taking the picture of this guy offloading cartons to go prepare the very delicious chicken that many Ghanaians from all walks of life like to come to Shoprite to buy, I asked him where so many of these are coming from.
I guess you know the answer by now.
Frozen South African chicken flown to Ghana when there is a vibrant, albeit dying, poultry industry here!
Go figure!
PS. It's deeply ironic that in looking for a link about Ghanaian poultry, I should come across an article, entitled The Chilling Effect of Frozen Poultry Imports, written today, that looks at how much of a big business the poultry industry is in Ghana. There's an interesting quote that is great food for thought:
According to the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organisation, Ghana spends more than 1.2 billion dollars annually on rice imports, which rose from 121,000 metric tonnes in 1993 to 507,600 in 2002...
Ghana imported 26,000 tonnes of chicken in 2002, mostly from the European Union, where farmers receive generous subsidies. Two years later this figure had almost doubled, to about 40,000 tonnes. The annual import bill currently hovers around 30 million dollars.
5 comments:
I bet that Ghanaian chickens taste a LOT better than imported South African chickens. What a disgrace!
Interesting.
Paz
My name is Johann and I am the General Manager of Shoprite in Ghana. I have seen your comments and understand your concerns. However, the chickens in question (and if you magnify the picture you will read it on the box) is from Assutuari Poultry Farm who is a registered Poultry Farm in Ghana and is currently Shoprite's main supplier of chicken. We also buy chicken from Darko Farms, another local producer. So unfortunately the information that was given to you was incorrect (that it is South African chicken). I can categorically state here that we do not fly one single chicken or chicken part in from SA. My Company has a very strong "proudly Ghanaian" policy in place and throughout the store you will find items we have sourced locally to stimulate local trade. Apart from that, we encourage local suppliers to develop new products and we promote them free of charge on high traffic areas in the store. If youare interested I will gladly share this detail with you if you want to know. I want to also use the opportunity to invite you to my office if there is anything else you want to discuss or contribute to the building up of the Ghanaian Economy
And the Ghanaian chicken does not taste bad, maybe we must put our money where our mouth is and support the local product instead of expensive imported items
Mr.Koegelenberg, many thanks for your explanation. I am glad to hear about the "Proudly Ghanaian" policy. I do hope it continues beyond Shoprite's one year of existence in Ghana...
Thanks for the explanation, Johann.
Paz
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