Economic Analysis of Consumer Demand for Indigenous Chicken Eggs in Kenya

Abstract

The World health organization recommends a daily protein requirement of 55 grams per person to avert health and nutritional related problems. This requirement is hardly met in majority of developing countries’ households especially in the sub Saharan African. Indigenous chicken eggs have potential to position themselves as a major source of proteins in these households due to their low prices compared to other sources of proteins. However, average per capita egg consumption in Kenya has remained low compared to the world average. Consequently, no research has been done to determine factors that influence egg consumption in Kenya. It is on the basis of this research gap that this study is conducted with three specific objectives; to characterize indigenous chicken egg consumers, to estimate the level of preferences in different egg types and to determine factors influencing household demand for indigenous chicken eggs in the counties of Makueni and Nairobi in Kenya.  A total of 174 respondents were sampled in across sectional survey design using a multistage sampling technique. The data was collected with the aid of a structured questionnaire and analyzed using descriptive statistics, non parametric Kendall coefficient of concordant test and multiple regression models in STATA 11.0 version. Results showed that there was a significant agreement (p<0.01) among consumers in the ranking of indigenous chicken eggs as the most important compared to all other eggs available in the market. Gender, age, education, price, income and household size had a significant effect (p<0.01) on demand for indigenous chicken eggs. All variables estimated had the expected sign. Policy should focus on these factors in order to increase both consumption levels and competitiveness of the egg value chain.

Keywords: Indigenous chicken eggs, demand, Kendall coefficient and multiple regression models.