Small Ruminants Marking in Ethiopia 
and the Need to Rethink
Getachew Legese
ILRI, Ethiopia
30th ESAP Annual Conference
September 16, 2022
Hawassa University
Introduction
❑ Ethiopia has diverse agro-ecological settings suitable for 
production of different kinds of livestock
❑Owns the largest livestock population in the region
❑Could not benefit from its resources
❑ There is a paradox of 
➢ demand shortage by producers and 
➢ supply shortage to consumers (especially export 
slaughterhouses) and sky rocketing price to domestic 
consumers
Introduction (Cont’d)
Number of live animals exported 10 years and income obtained
 900  250,000
 800
 700  200,000
 600
 150,000
 500
 400
 100,000
 300
 200  50,000
 100
 -  -
Year
Number(000) Value
Number of animals exported (‘000)
Value in '000 USD
Introduction (Cont’d)
Volume of meat exported in the last 10 years
25,000
20,000
15,000
10,000
5,000
0
Quantity of exported meat in 
tones
Introduction (Cont’d)
Income Obtained from Meat Export in the Last 10 Years
120
100
80
60
40
20
0
Income obtained in million USD
Objectives
• To reveal the results of market failure in small ruminant 
sub-sector and its implications to livestock producers, the 
national economy, environment and the whole food system
• Suggest interventions to overcome the problem of market 
failure and its associated results
Methodology
• Consultation with small ruminant value chain actors 
including: 
✓producers,
✓ traders, 
✓export abattoirs and 
✓Domestic consumers
• Review of:
✓Past value chain studies
✓Customs and CSA data
Results
The Resource Base
❑According the CSA 2021 sample survey, Ethiopia has: 
➢70.3 million cattle
➢42.9 million sheep
➢52.5 million goats
➢8.1 million camels
What Can be Supplied to the 
Market?
• At annual off-take rates
➢10% for cattle
➢35% for sheep
➢38% for goats
➢6.5% for camel
• The following are expected to be supplied
➢ 7.00 million cattle 
➢ 15.00 million sheep 
➢ 19.00 million goats 
➢ 0.50 million cattle annually supplied to the market and 
exchanged for different purposes
Consumer’s Criteria
Export Market
✓ Male, uncastrated animals
✓ Animals with live weight of not more than 15 kg (for Dubai) and 24 
kg (for KSA)
✓ Animals with good body condition and younger age (Under a year)
✓ These limit the number of animals that can enter the export VC.
Domestic Market
✓ Both male and female animals
✓ Younger animals with relatively higher weight
✓ Weight range depends on buyers need
✓ Fattened animals 
✓ Color (seasonal variation)
Demand for Sheep and Goats in 
the Export Sector
• 15 export abattoirs
• Capacity to process 200K tones/annum
• Can process about 20 million small ruminants/annum
• But they processed only 20K tones/annum over the last 
years. 
• Used only 10% of their installed capacity
• Shortage of supply of export quality animals is their major 
challenge
Number of Male Sheep and Goats 
in Marketable Age Categories
Animal type/species Sheep Goats 
Total Population (million) 42.9 52.5
Number of male animals (million) 12.4 16.01
Number 2.2 2.7
6 months- 1 year
Proportion 18% 17%
Number 2.4 3.3
Number 1- 2 years
Proportion 19% 21%
(million) and 
Number 3.7 5.5
Proportion (%) Above 2 years
Proportion 30% 34%
of male animals 
by age Number 8.3 11.5
Total marketable
Proportion 67% 72%
kept on farm over Number 6.1 8.8
1 year of age Proportion 49% 55%
Implications of Delayed Marketing 
of Male Animals 
• Over 6 million male sheep and 9 million male goats are kept 
on the farm for over a year waiting for more price
• However, experiences in improved small ruminant fattening 
in different locations of Ethiopia show these animals can be 
fattened in 3 months and fetch the price that can be 
obtained by feeding them for 2 years.
• More benefits could be obtained from quick turn over
• Resources (land, labor, feed, shelter) used in feeding one 
animal for more than 2 years can be used to quickly fatten 
about 6 animals 
Implications of Delayed Marketing of 
Male Animals (Cont’d)
• Keeping an animal for longer time also promotes producing 
poor quality meat as the animal gets older
• Against the principle of regenerative production practices 
of food systems
• Burden on the environment/more greenhouse gas emission 
• Less sustainable and against the principle of CRGE
Suggested Interventions
• Awareness creation on regenerative production and 
consumption practices
• Strong livestock market extension to promote value 
addition and marketing of animals at younger ages 
• Scaling out of improved fattening technologies
• Scaling out the community based breeding practices
• Support innovative marketing initiatives such as digital 
marketplaces
• Market linkages between the producers and consumer 
cooperatives, export market actors, institutional 
consumers, and others
Thank You!
More meat milk and eggs by and for the poor
CGIAR Research Program on Livestock
The program thanks all donors and organizations which globally support its work through their contributions to the CGIAR system
The CGIAR Research Program on Livestock aims to increase the productivity and profitability of livestock agri-food 
systems in sustainable ways, making meat, milk and eggs more available and affordable across the developing world.
livestock.cgiar.org
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