Meat Production, Consumption and Marketing Tradeoffs and Potentials in Ethiopia and Its Effect on GDP Growth: A Review

Abstract

Meat and other slaughter by-products being exportable food items have been contributing to the foreign export earning and GDP growth of Ethiopia since the beginning of meat processing. Even though the country is blessed with huge livestock resources, the share of meat and other slaughter by-products exported from the overall export commodities is not more than 2% and the percapita meat consumption is below Sub-Sahara African countries average.  This study was therefore, implemented to review the potentials and tradeoffs of meat production, processing and marketing in Ethiopia and seeking strategic intervention options to unleash the potentials after reviewing the available national and international reference materials. The study therefore indicated that, as opposed to Ethiopia's strategic location to market and sound climatic condition, the country is not benefiting from the huge livestock resources due to knowledge gap; limited compliance to meet the international requirements including food safety standards like ISO and HACCP; limited promotion done in marketing; limited intra-Africa trade integration; poor linkage among stakeholders; few market outlets and other interlinked problems. On top of these meat consumption trends is almost stagnant and the calorie intake per capita from meat is in a declining state. Therefore, policy support in terms of diverse incentive mechanisms; encouraging more research and development work so as to benefit smallholder farmers and processors and the need for traceability and residue monitoring, market promotion and conducting benchmarking and twinning programs are some of the measures to be taken in order to be competitive in the global market. Better business communication with potential buyers and back and forth linkage with stakeholders along the value chain are also very important for the transformation of the sector from the current staggering stage to globally competitive agribusiness.

Keywords: Challenges; Meat; Potentials; Traceability; Tradeoffs