Kenya meat exports

Meat exports by Mwangi Mumero Kenya has widened its beef and livestock markets after signing Libya, Democratic Republic of Congo and Malaysia. The Kenya Livestock Marketing Council (KLMC) says the new markets will boost pastoralists and ranchers who produce over 80 per cent of all beef in the country. Already, the Kenya exports 10 tonnes of beef weekly to Egypt and an additional 8 tonnes of mutton to Qatar and Dubai weekly. Statistics from KLMC indicated that 4,950 live cattle were exported to Mauritius between March and July 2011. Iran has also shown interest in the local livestock processing subsector for the export market. With the growing export market, farm gate price for cattle has shot from $ 0.7per kg in mid-2011 to $1.1per kg today’ Export price for cattle has increased from $1.34 per kg to between $1.82 and $ 2.6 per kg over the same period. To boost meat production, Kenya’s only processing plant at Athi River is set for privatization to increase its efficiency. The livestock ministry was allocated $ 1.5 million to finance construction of modern slaughterhouses for export beef in last year budget. According to a recent IGAD report, contribution of livestock of Kenya’s agriculture was estimated at $ 4.21 billion. Cattle are Kenya’s most important source of red meat, supplying by value about 80 per cent of the nation’s ruminant off take for slaughter. More than 80 per cent of the beef consumed in Kenya is produced by pastoralists, either domestically or in the export markets. (ends)