{"id":1540,"date":"2026-07-15T09:47:12","date_gmt":"2026-07-15T08:47:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/mediaconversation.com\/?p=1540"},"modified":"2026-07-15T09:47:12","modified_gmt":"2026-07-15T08:47:12","slug":"delsu-poultry-farmers-push-back-against-imported-frozen-chicken","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mediaconversation.com\/?p=1540","title":{"rendered":"DELSU Poultry Farmers Push Back Against Imported Frozen Chicken"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

By Miracle Oghenekaro<\/strong>\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A 500-level Animal Science student at Delta State University, Chukwuma Manasseh, has called on the Federal Government to restrict the importation of frozen chicken into Nigeria, warning that the practice undermines local farmers and poses health risks to consumers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Manasseh, who has farmed for five years, runs a mixed livestock operation that includes poultry, cattle, fish, rabbits, goats and pigs. He said his farm currently manages between 6,000 and 6,600 birds.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“Consumers prefer live chicken to frozen chicken,” Manasseh said, explaining that buyers want to see the condition of a bird before it is slaughtered. According to him, once a bird is killed and preserved, there is no way to know whether it was diseased or unhealthy before processing \u2014 a risk he says can be passed on to consumers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“If the bird suffered from an infection before it died, that infection carries over into the meat you eat,” he said. “You are also doing yourself harm by not knowing the health condition of the animal before it was killed.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Manasseh argued that imported chicken is priced higher than local birds largely because of packaging and preservation techniques designed to make the product look more attractive, rather than because of superior meat quality. He maintained that local birds actually have better meat quality than imported ones.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

On pricing, Manasseh said a kilogram of local chicken sells for between \u20a66,000 and \u20a66,500 on the open market, while the university sells it at a discounted rate of \u20a65,000 to \u20a65,500.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He described price as the farm’s main marketing tool against foreign competition. “Once you drop the price, even by \u20a6500, people will leave the foreign bird and come for the local one,” he said. Despite the competition from imported chicken, Manasseh insisted local farmers are not losing out, saying informed consumers who understand the benefits of local birds remain loyal customers, and that the business still yields good profit.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He also raised concerns about the use of genetic modification and chemical treatments in poultry production in countries without a tropical climate suited to natural bird-rearing. In his view, such interventions to boost meat yield or shelf life are not necessarily beneficial to human health.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Manasseh said the cost of poultry feed has fluctuated significantly over the past year. A bag of feed \u2014 commonly the Happy Chick brand \u2014 cost about \u20a623,500 last year, dropped to around \u20a620,000 in recent weeks, and has since risen to about \u20a622,000. He said the farm’s flock consumes six bags of feed daily to sustain 6,000 birds, and that the same feed is also given to the farm’s rabbits, which are additionally fed grower and starter feed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Manasseh said government support for agriculture has been inconsistent, noting that most administrations have not prioritised farmers. He singled out former President Goodluck Jonathan as the leader he considers to have shown the strongest interest in supporting agriculture, adding that former President Muhammadu Buhari also made some efforts in that direction.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He further appealed to the Federal Government to halt frozen chicken imports entirely, arguing that Nigeria should instead focus on exporting locally produced poultry to boost the country’s foreign exchange earnings and GDP. “We are not achieving anything good from importing frozen chicken,” he said. “Rather than bringing in birds preserved with harmful chemicals, we should be exporting ours and growing our economy.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Manasseh also spoke on the broader perception of agriculture among Nigerian youth, saying many still view farming as an outdated or unglamorous profession. He disagreed with that view, describing agriculture as a viable and dignified career path. “There is more to agriculture than people think,” he said, adding that he intends to go into full-time farming after graduation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Manasseh’s position was echoed by Anagba Jessica Chukwukuni, a 300-level Industrial Training student in the Department of Agricultural Management at Delta State University, who also spoke on the quality and pricing of local poultry.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Jessica said local birds are healthier and more affordable than imported frozen chicken. She noted that foreign birds go through extensive preservation processes that make it difficult for buyers to know the actual condition of the bird before it was slaughtered. “With local birds, you can see what you are buying,” she said. “But with frozen chicken, you don’t know how it died or how long it has been preserved. It is safer and cheaper to buy local.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Both farmers agreed that beyond the price advantage, transparency about the health and origin of the bird is what ultimately makes local poultry the safer choice for Nigerian consumers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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By Miracle Oghenekaro\u00a0 A 500-level Animal Science student at Delta State University, Chukwuma Manasseh, has called on the Federal Government to restrict the importation of frozen chicken into Nigeria, warning that the practice undermines local farmers and poses health risks to consumers. Manasseh, who has farmed for five years, runs a mixed livestock operation that […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":1541,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"iawp_total_views":17,"footnotes":""},"categories":[14],"tags":[25,132,405,406,355],"class_list":["post-1540","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-trendingnews","tag-delsu","tag-farmers","tag-frozen-chicken","tag-imported-food","tag-poultry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mediaconversation.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1540","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mediaconversation.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mediaconversation.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mediaconversation.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mediaconversation.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1540"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/mediaconversation.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1540\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1542,"href":"https:\/\/mediaconversation.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1540\/revisions\/1542"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mediaconversation.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/1541"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mediaconversation.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1540"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mediaconversation.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1540"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mediaconversation.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1540"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}