Côte d'Ivoire: guinea fowl, a staple of the holidays which tends to disappear from the tables

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Palmeraie poultry market, in Abidjan, December 24, 2022. © Marine Jeannin / RFI

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2 mins

In Côte d'Ivoire, it was a staple of the end-of-year celebrations: bush or farmed guinea fowl, with tastier flesh than chicken.

But having become too expensive, guinea fowl is now considered a luxury dish. 

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With our correspondent in Abidjan,

Marine Jeannin

At the Palmeraie poultry market, it's effervescence.

The animals move about in their henhouses without knowing the fate that awaits them.

And half a dozen customers are lined up on the bench in a row of onions, waiting for their heads to be cut off and their future main course to be plucked for them.

Victoire has come to prepare New Year's Eve with her friends, and she has already chosen the menu: “ 

I decided to cook guinea fowl today, because it's Christmas.

There will be peanut sauce with guinea fowl and grilled guinea fowl!

But it's hard to find guinea fowl at the market right now because it's really expensive

," she says.

Chicken, another popular poultry 

Papis, the seller, recognizes this: year after year, guinea fowl disappears from the holiday tables.

Its price has become prohibitive, here 6,000 to 9,000 CFA francs, and customers prefer chicken, which suffers less from inflation.

“ 

At Christmas, if you have the means, you come and buy three guinea fowl.

But now times are tough.

You can buy two chickens at

5,000 CFA francs, four chickens at 10,000. So it's better for you to buy the four chickens at 10,000, rather than two guinea fowl at 12,000, if you don't have the resources

 ,” he says.

Because the chicken came out a winner in the development of Ivorian poultry farming.

Since the customs barriers put in place by the government in 2005, its production has quadrupled.

The sector is considered by breeders to be easier and more profitable than the fragile guinea fowl.

►Also listen: European chicken angers Africa

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