Journal of Nutritional Health & Food Engineering

Review Article Open Access

Meat production, consumption and marketing

tradeoffs and potentials in Ethiopia and its effect on
GDP growth: a review
Abstract Volume 8 Issue 3 - 2018

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 Tekeba Eshetie,1 Kelifa Hussien,1 Tadesse
processing. Even though the country is blessed with huge livestock resources, the share Teshome,1 Abebaw Mekonnen2
of meat and other slaughter by-products exported from the overall export commodities is 1
Ethiopia Meat and Dairy Industry Development Institute
not more than 2% and the percapita meat consumption is below the average of Sub-Sahara (EMDIDI), Ethiopia
African countries. This study was therefore, implemented to review the potentials and
2
Ethiopia Meat Producers- Exporters Associations, Ethiopia
tradeoffs of meat production, processing and marketing in Ethiopia and seeking strategic
intervention options to unleash the potentials after reviewing the available national and Correspondence: Tekeba Eshetie, Ethiopia Meat and Dairy
Industry Development Institute, PO box 1573, Bishoftu, Ethiopia,
international resource materials. The study therefore indicated that, as opposed to Ethiopia’s
Email tekebanega@gmail.com
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 Received: February 02, 2018 | Published: May 01, 2018
international requirements including food safety standards like ISO, GMP 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,
pastoralists 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 is
also very important for the transformation of the sector from the current staggering stage to
globally competitive agribusiness.

Keywords: challenges, meat, potentials, traceability, tradeoffs

Introduction Having diverse livestock resources to gather with its strategic

Continued its buoyancy, the Ethiopian economy has registered
a significant growth rate of 10.3 percent in 2013/14, which was
about double growth as compared to the 5 percent growth for Sub-
Saharan Africa for the year 2014.1–3 This makes Ethiopia one of the
fast growing economies not only in Africa but also at global level.
Sector wise, Agriculture which is the main stay of the economy grew
by 5.4 percent while industry and services expanded by 21.2 and 11.9
percent, respectively revealing the fact that the economic growth in
Ethiopia has turned to become broad based and start transforming.3,4
The percentage share of GDP by major economic sectors in the year
2010/11 was 44.7 for Agriculture, 10.5 for Industry and 45.5 for the
Service sector but these figures changed to 38.5, 15.1 and 46.3 % in
the year 2014/15 in the same order.5
At a national level, livestock is the source of industrial raw
materials (milk, meat, hides and skin) and high value protein to
potential consumers in Ethiopia [1, 6]. It also contributes about 45%
to the Agricultural GDP, 18.7% to the national GDP and 16-19% to
the total foreign exchange earnings of the country.6–9 Because of low
productivity and poor management systems practiced however, the
average live weight of cattle is estimated at 250 kg; with 14% off take
rates and 110 kg carcass weight at 44% dressing percentage.1,8 The off
take rates for sheep is 40% that of goats 27% with 10 kg and 8 kg of
carcass weight, respectively8,10
location, Ethiopia has got more advantage to market livestock and
livestock products to wider parts of the world than most African
countries.1,6 But out of all live animal export in the country (85%) is
illegal1,11 to Djibouti, Somalia, Kenya and Sudan. On the other hand,
the major and formal meat export destination from Ethiopian export
abattoirs for chilled small ruminant meat is limited to United Arab
Emirates and Kingdom of Saudi Arabia with the order of 60% and
38% share.1,10,12,13 The meat by-products for export include, intestine,
testis, liver, brain, lung, kidney and abomasums which are mostly
exported to Vietnam, Saudi Arabia, Egypt etc.14
The rest of meat is exported to some North African countries
and other Arabic countries.1 The contribution of meat and meat by-
products export to GDP is growing but not to its potential as it is
observed in a number of reports. On the other hand, there are more
than 300 local abattoirs which produce meat for local consumption
at different locations with different capacity and facilities but with no
standards.
However, the export of meat on both shoat and beef origin were
not without challenges in Ethiopia. Therefore, this review study
is initiated to identify the major challenges and potentials of meat
production, trade and consumption from Ethiopia compared to some
African countries and to propose possible intervention areas to
leverage its potential.

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