By Makutu Manneh
G-Farms Limited, a Gambian-owned agribusiness farm in Gunjur Sambuya, was recently visited by President Adama Barrow, giving the management of the farm a chance to voice their constraints in the sector to the President.
Ebrima Simaha, the general manager of G-Farms Limited who took the president on a conducted tour of the farm’s facilities, said marketing has been their biggest challenge and concern. Simaha further explained that many poultry related products including broilers, chicken and eggs are imported in the country, and this affects their sales.
“We cannot sell against the prices of those coming from multi-million Dalasi companies because they can easily supply at a cheaper price while ours will be costly,” he said.
He said getting the raw materials for their business is also a challenge because most of it is outsourced, such as corn. He said the farm is owned and run by Gambians and the president should see such initiatives as an opportunity to create more employment for Gambians. He solicited the government’s support to expand their production.
According to Simaha, the Farm has a production capacity of one hundred thousand layers, twenty thousand broilers for meat production, four thousand hatchery capacities, and a feed miller that produces 30 tons of feed per day. He said the Farm also specialises in cattle rearing and milk production.
On his part, President Barrow said knowing that marketing is a challenge for G-farm, it is now just a matter of discussing it, adding that the business can produce enough for the country.
“The takeaway is now we can sit down with them, calculate and see what percentage they can reduce from their price and we adopt a policy whereby all the production from this country is sold in the country, and we would not import,” the president said.
