On Saturday, October 2, 2021, President Akufo Addo visited Darko farms following the revamp of the company’s operations under the Government’s flagship programme, the 1-District-1 Factory (!D!F) initiative.
The government identified Darko Farms as one of the distressed but potentially viable companies in the country. As a result, in 2017, Darko Farms applied to be part of the 1-District-1-Factory initiative.
After a thorough review of Darko Farm’s application by the Technical Support Group of the Ministry of Trade and Industry, GH¢22.1 million was granted as a loan facility to the company by Ghana EXIM Bank.
The amount was designated to revamp Darko Farm’s operations by
- upgrading the plant and equipment
- retooling the hatcher
- feed mill and processing facility as working capital support.
Darko Farms also applied part of the loan facility to establish an out-grower scheme, where several poultry farmers are supported with broiler chicks, feed, as well as technical assistance to breed their birds.
About Darko Farms
Darko Farms is a family-owned poultry farm in Ghana. It is the oldest private and largest poultry farm in the country. The company has a processing plant operating at 10,000 birds per day with one shift, and 20,000 birds per day with two shifts.
Darko Farms has a hatchery with the capacity to produce 6-million-day-old chicks a year, breeder farms with a bird population of about 30,000 per batch, a layer farm with a capacity of 100,000 per batch, and commercial broiler farms with a capacity of 350,000 birds per cycle of 8 weeks.
The farm creates direct employment for some 250 workers, and indirectly for over 500 individuals, which includes out-growers, distributors, and transporters. Should Darko Farms reach its full operational capacity, the company will directly hire more than 400 workers, with 700 being indirectly employed.
About the poultry supply to KFC
Darko Farms is in current negotiations with Masco Foods (franchise owners of the KFC brand in Ghana) under the parent company Mohinani Group to become the major supplier of processed chicken for the world-renowned restaurant brand, Kentucky Fried Chicken (KFC) restaurant in the country.
Should the negotiations yield fruit, Darko Farms will supply KFC Ghana with 100,000 processed chickens per month under YUM certified conditions.
This development is one step to ending the importation of poultry products in Ghana.
