Animal Smuggling from Ethiopia on the Rise

Animal smuggling from Ethiopia is on the rise. The director of the Ethiopian Institute of Agriculture Research, Dr. Fekede Feyisa disclosed the losses suffered by Ethiopian economy due to illegal animal trade. The illegal trade seems to be increasing day by day.

Animals are being smuggled from Ethiopia into neighboring countries like Djibouti, Kenya, Sudan, Somalia and Eritrea. Dr. Fekede Feyisa said that these countries are getting more benefits from illegal trade than Ethiopia. Animals are being taken not just from the border areas but also from inside Ethiopia. Animal smuggling from Ethiopia include cattle, pets, donkey and in some cases wild animals too.

The illegal trade is expanding due to lack of proper border surveillance mechanisms. The lack of proper infrastructure to enable pastoralists to sell their animals legally also contributes to the scale of the illegal activity. Ethiopia has more animals compared to neighboring countries. According to the Ethiopian Statistics Agency, in 2021, Ethiopia had a total of 42 million sheep, 52.5 million goats, 70.2 million cattle, 58 million chickens, and 8 million camels.

Ethiopia was earning up to half a billion dollars from animal trade but the revenue has dropped to one hundred million, states the Ethiopian Institute of Agriculture Research. The reason for this drop in earnings is increase in animal smuggling. The problem can be solved by improving the marketing chain, creating new markets, building more slaughterhouses and installing border surveillance mechanisms.

Last week, General Manager of Alana Group Mr. Kalifa Hussain said that the company has become the first exporter of camel’s meat from Ethiopia in addition to goat and lamb meat. The general manager of Alana Group mentioned that the group earns over $200,000 each month just from camel meat exports. He also mentioned that the company exported around 50,000 sheep and goats every month. The total monthly income from exporting camel, goat, and sheep meat is more than $1.5 million. Read More…

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