The local poultry market in Nigeria is being threatened due to the nefarious activities of smugglers bringing in frozen chickens.
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Poultry farmers at the ongoing Nigeria Poultry Show in Abeokuta, Ogun State, say activities of smugglers are crippling the poultry industry in the country.
One of the farmers and immediate past President of the Poultry Farmers Association (PAN), Dr. Ayoola Oduntan, said 75 per cent of the frozen chicken in the country were being smuggled in, which according to him, was killing the industry.
He said at present, chickens worth N2.5bn produced by local farmers were stocked in cold rooms nationwide without market.
Oduntan, who said people answered the call by the present government to go back to farm, regretted that the same government was failing to protect them from the hands of smugglers.
“You see, because of the smuggled chickens, chickens grown by local farmers don’t have enough market and there is a limit to which they can grow, so most of them are dying in the farms because of excessive weight,” he said.
He called on the government and other stakeholders to ensure strict enforcement of the existing law which bans poultry products importation. Also speaking, the new President of the association, Mr. Ezekiel Ibrahim, who lamented the activities of smugglers, said the association would collaborate with government at all levels to protect the industry by curbing the activities of smugglers of poultry products in the country.
The National Vice President, South West, of the association, Prince Bode Adetoyi, appealed to relevant government agencies to save the industry from the hands of smugglers whose activities he said threatened the survival of the industry.