Poultry Association of Nigeria Warns of Threat to Poultry Sector from Frozen Chicken Imports

The Poultry Association of Nigeria has issued a warning that Nigeria’s poultry sector is at risk of collapsing due to the recent lifting of restrictions on foreign exchange for frozen chicken imports into the country.

On October 12, 2023, NewsNow reported that the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) had lifted the ban on importers of 43 items that were previously restricted from accessing foreign exchange.

In a statement released in Abuja on Wednesday, the Director-General of PAN, Onallo Akpa, and the National President of the association, Sunday Ezeobiora, expressed their concerns about the potential collapse of the poultry industry, which contributes over N12tn to the economy and provides more than 20 million jobs.

They highlighted the risk of Nigeria becoming a dumping ground for imported poultry products, similar to the situation before the year 2000.

The statement mentioned the previous instances of unhealthy frozen poultry meat stored with chemicals that were imported into the country.

PAN stated that the recent forex policy changes by the CBN contradict the government’s fiscal policy stands and are creating an unacceptable impasse in poultry development.

“This recent announcement further heightened the fears of the farmers and investors in the poultry industry and compounded the already collapsing production in the sector,” PAN stated.