Abstract

As opposed to the high national demand for broiler meat in Ethiopia, the production and processing companies are not benefited from the market. A huge amount of broiler meat has been imported to Ethiopia by International star hotels, supermarkets and Ethiopian airlines from different parts of the world. Therefore, this research work is initiated to assess the status of broiler production and processing practices in Ethiopia so as to identify major causes of poultry products importations and propose the way forward. The research is basically a field study supplemented with secondary data from the national and international data sources. The primary data was collected from selected broiler producers, processors, supermarkets and international star hotels and Ethiopian airlines. This research was conducted in purposively selected sites where you find broilers production, processing establishments and the market. For the interview purpose, 21 broiler farms and 4 broiler meat processors were used. The collected data was analyzed using descriptive statistics and SPSS. The result of this study generally indicated that the broiler production systems observed by the study team is classified into two broad categories, commercial broiler production system and small-scale broiler production system. Facilities used in both production systems are different based on their investment capacity, level of their knowledge, input access and scope of their market outlets. In both production systems and processing units, there is no standard for their products, traceability for their products is very challenging and the type of transport system they are using for their products is not up to the standard.

The informal marketing channel is dominant, the application of international food safety measures like ISO, HACCP and GMP are literally absent, shortage of skilled manpower in the sector is a very serious problem and the market information system and access to credit and incentive is very shallow. The other challenge is the involvement of the middlemen in the marketing process who take the major share of the margin. Therefore, because of these interlinked challenges and others, the producers and processors are not benefited from their business as a result there is continuous broiler meat imported from other parts of the world. Hence, there are efforts to continue capacity building in-terms of man power, facilities, access to credit, strategic incentives, market information system, issuance of rules and regulations for binding challenges in marketing, products traceability system, cold chain facilities, policy direction in products importation, food safety measures and investment promotion in production and processing are very important. Strong and sustainable linkage among major stakeholders is very crucial as well. Further research is needed to see the origin of the products, trends and the actors involved.

Keywords: Importation; Marketing; Processing; Production