Agric Minister Commissions Beacon Cold Storage Expansion to Support Poultry Industry
Minister for Food and Agriculture, Hon. Eric Opoku, has commissioned Beacon’s ultra-modern cold storage expansion project at Tema in the Greater Accra Region, describing it as a strategic investment in Ghana’s food security framework and a strong signal of confidence in the country’s poultry industry.
Speaking at the commissioning ceremony, the Minister said the project goes beyond being a physical infrastructure, noting that it represents a concrete commitment to strengthening Ghana’s agricultural value chain.
According to him, the investment aligns directly with government’s flagship Feed Ghana Programme, which seeks to transform the country’s agriculture and food systems.
Under the programme, Mr. Opoku said livestock development occupies a central role, with poultry identified as one of the most immediate and high-impact opportunities for import substitution, job creation and agro-industrial growth.
“For many years, Ghana has depended heavily on imported poultry products, with an annual import bill estimated between US$300 million and US$400 million. This situation is neither economically sustainable nor consistent with our national development aspirations,” he said.
“The time has come to rebuild domestic capacity across the entire poultry value chain — from hatchery to feed production, from farm to processing, and from cold storage to market,” the Minister added.
To address longstanding structural challenges in the sector, Mr. Opoku explained that government has launched the Poultry Industry Revitalisation sub-programme under the Feed Ghana Programme.
He said the intervention is designed to tackle key bottlenecks including high feed costs, weak value-chain coordination, limited access to quality day-old chicks, inadequate veterinary services, and insufficient processing and cold chain infrastructure.
The Minister outlined three models underpinning the poultry revitalisation agenda. These include a Poultry Farm-to-Table model to support large-scale commercial farms, a framework to strengthen small and medium-scale poultry producers to enhance productivity and competitiveness, and the Nkoko Nketenkete Backyard Poultry Programme, which targets household and community-level production with a focus on women, youth and vulnerable groups.
Mr. Opoku stressed that expanding production without corresponding investments in processing and cold chain infrastructure would undermine the sector’s growth.
“Increasing production without adequate processing and cold chain capacity is incomplete,” he said, noting that Beacon’s cold storage expansion project is therefore timely in enhancing Ghana’s ability to preserve quality, reduce post-harvest losses, stabilise supply and uphold food safety standards.
He commended Beacon Source and Services Ltd. and its partner, Bostex Trading GmbH, for their vision and strategic alignment with government’s agricultural transformation agenda.
According to the Minister, such private sector investments are critical to advancing national objectives on food security, job creation, industrial development and economic resilience.
