The market for poultry meat is small, but growing. The production is for the national market, which fits to the starting points of SME. That means that the added economic value stays in Ethiopia which is beneficial for all the stakeholders in the supply chain. The investments for small en medium holder farmers are relatively small. If the quality of their farming is good, they can participate in a supply chain for poultry meat.
Next to that other criteria make the choice for poultry supply chains reasonable:
- The lifetime cycle for chicken is short, about 50 days. Results of investments are shown in a short time.
- The conversion from fodder to meat is much better for chicken than for beef, goat and sheep.
- The needed water for meat production is for chicken much less than for beef. Chicken needs 4 liter of water for 1 kg of meat, for beef 16 liters are needed.
- Chicken produces less greenhouse gases like methane than cattle.
- Poultry meat is white meat and this is considered to have less negative influence health than red beef. Medical research shows that Intestinal cancer can be promoted more by red than by white meat.
So from the point of view of sustainability and health chicken has advantages above red meat of beef, sheep, goat, pig and camel.
