Success Story
Loading of shoats at Biki Market.
“The Business to Business linkage facilitated by PRIME has been an eye opening, and provided us the opportunity for constants market” said
Omar Gire Alale.
Livestock traders, in Biki and Muli areas did not have good market where they will sell their animals after buying from producers, “we were like
brokers, we buy from the producers and sell in the market to other traders/brokers/ exporters from Jijiga areas or from the neighboring country
Djibouti” says Omar one of the livestock trader in Biki, there were only reaching up to 100 HH in the peak season.
With the support from USAID Pastoralists Areas Resilience Improvement through Market Expansion (PRIME) ,livestock traders from Biki and
Mulli areas, participated in Business to Business forum that was held in Diredawa, in this forum Abattoirs like Modjo, Halal, Associations and
other livestock traders were invited, representatives from Government( woreda level LCRDB and woreda cooperative agency) were also present.
The objective of this event was to create market linkages for livestock traders from the Eastern Cluster and abattoirs. 35 participants from
different private enterprises including owners and representatives of highland abattoirs and actual and potential livestock traders from Shinile,
Jigjiga, Dageabur and Aysha met at a one-day linkage event/workshop in Dire Dawa. The Ethiopian Meat Exporters Association also participated
in the event. Two newly established abattoirs; Abyssinia and Halal and two earlier established, ELFORA and MOJO, participated in the workshop.
This event allowed livestock traders and abattoirs to engage in an open exchange to share ideas, formal communication, relationship building
and also exchange information and contacts for potential business transactions. This helped traders and abattoirs build trust and confidence in
each other. In addition to this, livestock traders and abattoirs bargained the price/kg, mode of livestock transportation and also future
cooperation with maximum trust and confidence.
The livestock traders from Biki and mulli, continue communicating and bargaining with Modjo abattoirs one of their preferred Abatoir, ACPA
through PRIME project facilitated agreement signing in which representative of the livestock traders made visit to Modjo Abattoirs, they agreed
on terms price per kg, transportation and who is to provide the transportation, as stated by one of the traders, he says we have attended many
multi-stake holder workshops with an attempt to create linkage but this one is really different because it was one to one negotiation and
detailed discussions on each point, where each one had to make some tradeoff, “ we really made a good deal”.
Currently the livestock traders of biki and Mulihad made agreement with Modjo Abattoir to supply shoats and within 3 weeks they have supplied
714 heads of shoats, reached double of the HH they used to reach before, now they have reached 300 HH. The livestock traders are planning to
construct feedlot, they said fattening is one of the best techniques to get money, the more the weight of the animal the more money we get
says one of the livestock traders, they are also planning to get Murabaha loan product from Bank or MFI to increase the volume of purchase of
animals, Omar Gire – livestock trader says “ the market linkage will reduce poverty and increase income within the community, when we get
good market for animals, there are so many youth who will get temporary employment as herders, brokers, collectors and most of all
competitive market for the producers”