The Pig Farmers Association of Ghana says its members will this month, November 2022, increase the prices of pigs at the farm gate to GH¢20 per kilo for the Iight weight and the carcass pegged at GH¢30.

According to the Association, several factors have contributed to the price hike, with the price of feed and the scarcity of the ingredients being contributory factors.

The Association says these factors are preventing its members from having long-term business relationships with buyers since the prices keep fluctuating on the market.

Speaking to Citi News at this year’s Porktober festival, President of the Association, Kwame Appiah Dankwah, said government must stabilize the cedi to control the price fluctuations.

Highlighting some of the major challenges affecting the trade, Mr. Dankwah said: “the main challenge that we are facing as an industry is the price of the feed and the scarcity of some of the ingredients. The price keeps escalating every day, so it becomes a challenge to even have a long-term business arrangement with any buyer because you go sign a deal with the person that you keep supplying the person with pork for, let’s say, a month or two, and you go and give the person a price but within a week or two, you go, and the feeding ingredients have gone up, and it is difficult to say you will not go by the contract.”

Soya which was around GH¢320 in September for a kilo is almost GH¢500 now. When you go to the shops for these additives; the vitamins and the minerals, every day you go, the price will change and when you ask, they tell you that they have to increase the price so that by the time they sell and the price increases, they can still import,” he added.

He further lamented that unplanned price increases have an effect on the quantities purchased or ordered because the economic difficulties have a bearing on client’s purchasing power.

“People do not have enough monies in their pocket such that you say, once they increase [price], you will also increase [price]. The purchasing power is low and once the purchasing power is low, it becomes difficult to increase the price to meet the increasing price, so at the end of the day, it is either you are breaking even or losing, and we cannot continue to be losing.”