Africa at the Centre of the World (2/4)

The Ghanaian Case

Un exemple de pression similaire que celui au Tchad est célèbre au Ghana. Lorsque le Parlement a passé une loi augmentant le tarif à l’importation du poulet – congelé – pour protéger son industrie locale, le FMI a élevé la voix pressant le gouvernement de l’annuler.

‘Playing Chicken: Ghana vs. the IMF’
(http://www.corpwatch.org/article.php?id=12394)

‘[D]emand for local poultry has collapsed, threatening the livelihoods of over 400,000 poultry farmers in the small West African nation. In 2002 alone, more than 26,000 tonnes of chicken was imported into the country, mostly from the European Union where farmers receive generous subsidies for their products. In 2004, that figure was estimated to be as high as 40,000 tonnes.’ ‘The European Union, the source of most of the imported chicken provides 43 billion euros to its farmers annually.’ ‘Ghana imports almost one third of the EU frozen chicken that goes to Africa. Cameroon, Togo, Senegal and South Africa are among the other nations receiving imported frozen chickens and chicken parts. As much as 87 percent of the poultry in Cameroon, comes from Belgium and Spain. In the case of Senegal, the Netherlands and Belgium combined account for 60 percent.’ ‘In fact, most members of the once thriving 400,000 member National Association of Poultry Farmers have folded up. And Ghana's rice and tomato industries are equally threatened.’ ‘All over the capital city, large billboards are advertising American long-grained rice, which, thanks to huge subsidies from the US government, has displaced local Ghanaian rice from the shelves. Most of the subsidies are paid to big rice farmers in states such as Arkansas. According to Oxfam, the British NGO, one company alone, Ricelands of Arkansas, was the recipient of US federal government agricultural subsidies totaling $490m between 1995 and 2003.’ ‘Ghana was on the way to becoming self-sufficient in rice production in the 1970s and 1980s. But the IMF structural adjustment program halted farm subsidies to rice farmers. Ghana now produces a mere 150,000 tonnes of rice, or 35 percent of its domestic need.

‘In a report called "Farming Dynamics," the Belgian NGO SOS Faim reported on the impacts of the transit of the poultry, which tends to thaw out between freezing several times from the EU to Africa. According to the report, "Deep frozen chicken parts have no value within the EU, as there is no demand and no market for these products. If traders sell the product in Africa, it is because the price is higher than the price offered by pet food producers."’