MOROCCO – 17 African nations have consolidated their poultry associations to form one new organization, the Confederation of African Organizations for the Development of Poultry (CADA), that seeks to boost the continent’s poultry value chain.
The new organization, which will be headquartered in Casablanca plans, over the long term, to expand its members to 52 countries.
Speaking at the inauguration of the Constitutive General Assembly of CADA, Mr Sadiki, the Minister of Agriculture, Maritime Fisheries, Rural Development and Water and Forests, congratulated all Africans for the creation of the organization.
“Food security and food sovereignty are matters to be dealt with at the continental level and not at the national level. The CADA will allow the equalization of poultry resources between regions and countries. It is also a vision of transfer of good practices in the poultry sector,” he highlighted.
The minister added that all players in the poultry sector need to mobilize to further develop the sector by enhancing poultry products and controlling their quality to raise the challenges of international competitiveness.
On the other hand, the President of the Interprofessional Federation of the Poultry Sector (FISA) in Morocco, praised the idea of creating the organization driven by problems caused by food sovereignty in other countries.
He added that the level of poultry product consumption in Africa is ten times lower than that of the countries in the North.
“This event marks the beginning of the union of poultry professionals on the African continent through the constitution of the CADA, which aims to promote poultry farming as modern and sustainable in Africa,” a Constitutive General Assembly spokesman added.
He noted that the national organizations in the poultry sector have the duty to pool actions for the development, control, and promotion of poultry products.
According to research data, imports of chicken have increased rapidly over the last 20 years in many African countries.
This is especially true in West Africa, where domestic chicken production has not kept pace with the rapidly rising demand as the study indicates.
West Africa is the main center of imports with an envelope of $747 million disbursed for the acquisition of 670,000 tonnes of chicken meat with main suppliers in Brazil, the USA, and countries of the European Union (EU).
It should be remembered that in Africa the local supply of chicken meat is around 4 million tonnes per year, a third of this volume being supplied by South Africa.
In the past, a few African countries, such as Nigeria and Senegal, imposed protectionist trade policies, either by raising import tariffs or by banning chicken imports altogether.
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