In Ghana, meat imports are collapsing the business of local traders

The Ashaiman Main Market Butchers Association has decried the importation of meat products into Ghana, arguing that the situation is crippling their business activities. They fear losing their business for the reason that about 80% of their customers preferred cheap imported meat to fresh ones on the local market. As a result, some traders in the meat market have abandoned their tables in search of other business opportunities, while others have spread out to vantage points within the market and other new markets in the Ashaiman municipality in order to meet sales targets. “One of our major problems is the imported meat that is affecting our business. Locally cut fresh cow leg costs GH¢15, but the imported one cost GH¢5. Most of our customers are chop bar operators, and because they want more profit they now go to the cold stores and buy imported meat,” Yakubu Ibrahim and Abubakari Mohammed, members of the association, told the B&FT in an interview. They bemoaned that ...