Work visit SME to Ethiopia
September 2018
Introduction
Three board members were in Ethiopia from 8-19 September. The goals were to visit potential stakeholders in a supply chain for chicken meat. These are farmers (outgrowers), hatcheries, slaughter houses, feed production enterprises and representatives of the market like restaurants, hotels and super markets.
An important goal was to make steps forward in our cooperation with the chicken slaughterhouse Chico Meat (CM). In the summer of 2018 a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) was signed by SME and CM. Many of the stakeholders which were visited by the board members were connected to CM in some way.
Last but not least. The board members had to experience what it does mean to be entrepreneur in the context and culture of the Ethiopian society and how the market for chicken meat was developing.
Work plan
The work plan was created by Fair & Sustainable and CM, based on the goals and wishes of SME.
The board members visited:
- Two slaughter houses
- One hatchery
- Six outgrowers, small and medium sized. All farms were owned by Ethiopian farmers.
- Five restaurants
- One enterprise for feed production
- One big farm for layers, owned by a Dutch employer and with a Dutch management
Most of the visits were in Addis Abeba and Debre Zeit. Also Lalibela and restaurants there were visited.
Next to that there were meetings with representatives of relevant organizations, like a research centre and ngo’s.
Results
The market for chicken meat is growing quick. More and more restaurant and chains of restaurants with chicken meat as an important part of the menu appear. Kentucky Fried Chicken will start 3-4 restaurants in Addis in the coming time. The fast food world is coming in.
The conditions for chicken in the poultry houses are in general not good, surely compared to the situation in Europe. The stables are wet, especially in the rainy season. The drain for water and urine is not good. Most chicken get infection under the feet. Despite this they are slaughtered and consumed.
Poultry houses are lighted 24 hrs per day, something which is forbidden in the western world and not good for the health of the chickens. The reason is that in this way chicken eat during 24 hrs and grow fast. The growing time is 42 days. This is at least one week less than the growing time in the Netherlands for a ‘beter leven kip’ (better life chicken).
Next steps
The MoU between SME and Chico Meat was ‘translated’ in some standards. Next to that concrete appointments were made for work activities linked to the separate responsibilities and available expertise.
SME is busy to develop a framework for an integral quality care system. In this system two sectors can be distinguished. The primary sector concerns the production and processing of chicken feed. The second sector is the slaughtering process and the access to the market. The production of feed is crucial in terms of quantity and quality. The goal is that the supply chain with Chico Meat as a director gets its own feed production. Some steps are made in this development.
A special attention needs the scale of the participating farmers (outgrowers). SME wants to realize a situation in which small en medium sized farmers can participate and become stronger. This needs support concerning money and training. SME will make progress on these topics.
Money and funds
SME needs to realize more money and funds. Some investigation has been done to subsidizing organizations. There have been meetings with the organization Incluvest, nearly linked to Woord en Daad, to see what possibilities there may be for cooperation and applying for subsidizing funds.
Next to that SME is thinking about crowd funding and to create ‘Friends of SME’. Donations are very welcome.
See our website under Contact/support.
