By Aminate Kane Balde*
Sierra Leone has a poultry-system problem and every imported egg and chicken is a reminder of the economic value we are failing to capture at home.
In a country with abundant land, rainfall, farmers, a large appetite for eggs and chicken as well as a growing population, there is something deeply revealing about the fact that Sierra Leone continues to import so much of the poultry it consumes.
The problem is not that Sierra Leoneans do not want to produce. We do. Poultry farms operate across the country. Entrepreneurs are producing eggs, raising broilers, manufacturing feed and experimenting with hatcheries. The problem is that too many of these businesses are attempting to build a domestic industry inside a market whose economics often favour the imported product.
The numbers should make us uncomfortable. Sierra Leone’s Feed Salone strategy, the national agricultural program aimed at achieving food sovereignty, estimated that local production was meeting only about 15% of annual egg demand, while between 2020 and 2023 the country imported approximately US$60.8 million of frozen chicken and US$13.2 million of eggs. More recent government data shows that registered commercial poultry farms increased from 94 in 2023 to 116 in 2024, while registered egg production rose from roughly 3,303 metric tonnes to 5,027 tonnes. Yet chicken imports rebounded to 8,907 tonnes in 2024 and 12,567 tonnes in January–September 2025, while egg imports also increased in 2024.
So the paradox is not difficult to see: local production is growing, demand exists, yet imports continue to occupy a substantial share of the market.
And behind the chicken and the egg is an entire economic chain.
Considering the economics of producing an egg, the United Nations’ Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) estimates that feed accounts for 60–75 percent of poultry production costs in Sierra Leone. Limited domestic milling capacity, expensive maize, imported feed and inadequate hatchery infrastructure expose farmers to high production costs long before their products reach the market.
For producers who have invested in poultry houses, equipment and birds, these constraints can be devastating. Some expanded through government-supported loans and grants, committing personal assets in anticipation of growing demand. When imported eggs enter the market at prices local producers cannot sustainably match, farmers risk selling below production costs, defaulting on loans and abandoning investments intended to strengthen domestic food production.
This raises a fundamental question: what is the economic value of financing local production if the market into which farmers are expected to sell remains insufficiently coordinated?
Price competition is not evidence of wrongdoing. Imported products may benefit from greater production efficiencies or lower input costs. Nevertheless, concerns about unusually low import prices, customs declarations and the enforcement of applicable duties warrant transparent investigation. Consistent trade administration should protect public revenue and ensure fair competition without unnecessarily increasing food prices for consumers.
Food safety introduces another concern. Eggs transported over long distances require appropriate handling, storage and traceability. Reports of deteriorating imported eggs deserve systematic inspection and publicly accessible findings.
Although concerns have been raised about a possible link between imported eggs and the reported prevalence of typhoid in Sierra Leone, no epidemiological evidence has yet established such a connection. These concerns nevertheless warrant rigorous food-safety inspections and an independent public-health investigation.
Consumers deserve enforceable safety standards regardless of a product’s origin.
The longer-term solution, however, lies beyond import regulation.
Invest Salone’s work with Leecon Poultry demonstrates what an integrated approach can achieve. With support from COMPETE Salone and collaboration with Njala University, Leecon developed feed using locally available ingredients. Over 18 months, the company produced enough feed for its operations, sold 381 metric tones to other farmers and sold 800 metric tonnes of locally produced maize to buyers from Mali.
This experience reveals the wider economic potential of poultry. Feed manufacturing can stimulate maize production, agricultural processing and rural markets, while investment in hatcheries, veterinary services, cold storage and distribution can create additional opportunities for local businesses. Poultry can become an industrial ecosystem here in Sierra Leone rather than a collection of farmers struggling independently against imported products.
After realizing the great potential in connecting agricultural production to industrial investment, trade policy and market development; farmers request for reliable inputs, affordable finance and predictable buyers. There is a need to also secure dependable agricultural supply chains for feed manufacturers, ensure financial institutions develop investment models suited to agricultural production cycles, while public institutions enforce consistent standards and provide credible market information.
Feed Salone and FAO’s 2026 investment framework already recognise these interdependencies. FAO proposes a US$241.5 million integrated poultry-feed investment, linking domestic feed production to commercial farms, hatcheries, financing and markets, with targets to halve production costs and reduce frozen chicken and egg imports by 50 percent by 2028
The next step is execution. There must be a coordinated, time-bound program developed with farmers, feed manufacturers, importers, financial institutions and relevant public agencies. And its success should be measured through domestic production, farm profitability, competitive prices, loan repayment, food safety and the growth of commercially sustainable enterprises.
Sierra Leone cannot build a viable poultry industry while imported eggs enter its market at prices domestic producers cannot sustainably match, especially amid serious allegations that lower prices are being achieved at the expense of product quality and compliance with import regulations. The priority must be to investigate these allegations, enforce import duties and food-safety standards, strengthen controls on shelf life and storage conditions, and regulate import volumes in line with verified domestic production capacity, while investing in the feed, hatchery and processing infrastructure that will allow local farmers to supply the market competitively.
As a nation, we have the opportunity to build a competitive domestic poultry industry; one that creates reliable markets for Sierra Leonean maize farmers, strengthens local feed production and hatcheries, generates employment and retains more economic value within the country.
That is a practical economic transformation agenda, one for which Sierra Leonean expertise should be commissioned, investment mobilized and institutions held accountable for measurable results.
*Aminata Kane Balde is the Founder and Executive Chair of Craving 4 Development and Craving Ventures, and the Curator and Host of The Rise & Radiate podcast. She is also a Public Voices Fellow Tackling Poverty, a partnership of Acumen and The OpEd Project.