ETHIOPIA – The Ethiopian meat sector has been steadily growing and domestic and foreign investors are showing interest, according to reports by the Ethiopian Meat and Dairy Industry Development Institute.
Companies from China, Morocco, South Africa and India are currently interested in the meat-processing sector in the country.
Frigorifico Allana, which is part of the largest agribusiness group in India, are some of the interested parties that are operating in Ethiopia, among others like Luna, Organic, Aksheker and Mojo Morden Export.
The country received US$207 million from the planned US$266 million income from the meast sector in the first two years of the Ethiopian GTP-II, the second year of the five-year development plan.
However, Ethiopia benefits little from the meat and dairy export industry and is working on how to utilize its livestock resource and working to expand its market destinations.
Ethiopia targets Dubai and Saudi Arabia as the main destinations of the meat export to help increase the progress made since last year over US$104 million in revenues.
“Earlier in the year, there was shortage of market linkage, but now Qatar, Kuwait, Bangladesh and Vietnam are among the new market destination we have entered this year.”
According to Haile Selassie, Director-General of the Institute Hailesillasie Wores, the Institute will attract 20 companies to the country to improve the benefits of the country from the meat and dairy sector and plans to obtain US$180 million from the export industry.
The institute plans to work hard in bringing development to the sector by attracting more investor companies and enhancing human resource development.
“Efforts are being underway to start under-graduate and postgraduate programs in the sector in two institutes”, Hailesilassie said.
“Meat, milk, fish and honey processing and processing technologies are the areas to be covered by the courses.”
“Shortage of livestock supply and market destination is among the major challenges of the sector”, he said and added that efforts were being exerted to ease the problem.
According to a telephone conversation with ENA, Mojo Modern Export Abattoir Technical Manager, and Dr Saleamlak Abnew agreed that shortage of livestock supply was hindering companies from becoming fully operational and the situation was creating unfair competition in the markets leading to inflation.
The manager added that shortage was hindering its company from achieving its goal and that more should be done by opening ranches to permanently supply quality meat and dairy products.
By solving challenges affecting the meat industry sector, Ethiopia aspires to obtain US$1.4billion from the export of over 92,000 tonnes of meat by the end of GTP-II.
