Livestock Market Information System Useful for Regional Livestock Trade: Ministry

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May 7/2022 /ENA/  The effective implementation of the National Livestock Market Information System (NLMIS) in Ethiopia is benefiting stakeholders and is useful for regional livestock trade and integration, according to the Ministry of Trade and Regional Integration.

The ministry has held an Awareness Creation and Dissemination Workshop on the National Livestock Market Information System (NLMIS) on Friday.    

NLMIS provides timely and digital livestock market information collected from market centers in Ethiopia where pastoralists, livestock traders, and other interested stakeholders can then request the price and volume information for specific markets using Short Message Service (SMS).

Ministry of Trade and Regional Integration Export Marketing and Promotion Director-General, Gemechies Melaku on the occasion said the government is working to support the livestock sector to exploit the benefits that can be obtained from the great resource the country owns.

Supporting and effectively implementing this national system in a coordinated manner will help resolve the market information gap and facilitate livestock export trade and regional integration, he noted.  

Ethiopia has 70.2 million cattles, 52.5 million goats, 42.9 million sheep and 8.1 million camels, the director-general said citing to Ethiopian Statistics Agency report of 2020/2021.

However, he added, recent export earning from the livestock export trade was not satisfactory considering the existing live stock potential of the country, which is the biggest in Africa and among the greatest potential livestock resources in the world.

Out of the 3.64 billion USD total export of the country, 1.1 billion or 28 percent was obtained from the agriculture sector, but if proper focus is given to this sector, more can be generated, he said.

The livestock sector is a means of livelihood for 60 to 70 percent of the Ethiopian population, he stated.

Livestock, Hide and Skin Director at Ministry of Trade and Regional Integration, Desnet Belay told ENA that the web based system currently provides necessary market information from 56 market centers in six regions and the two city administrations of Ethiopia.

According to him, the ministry has trained market information collecting experts who send the necessary information through SMS to the main server in Addis Ababa to be analyzed by experts in place in a way that benefits all stakeholders’ choice and decision in the supply chain.

The 5 market centers in Southern Nations Nationalities Peoples region, 18 from Oromia, 7 from Amhara, 10 from Somali, 11 from Afar, 1 from Harar regions as well as 4 in Addis Ababa and 1 in Dire Dawa are currently sending the market information to the system, he said.

The director said the established national system in Ethiopia is crucial to provide reliable and real-time market information for the livestock market across the country which is critical for farmers, pastoralists, policy makers, traders and exporters as well as other actors in the market chain.

The system will provide online market data for farmers, buyers, government, non-governmental institutions, media outlets and researchers.

The system is being implemented by many IGAD member countries and is hoped that it will provide reliable market information of the livestock market for traders and facilitate regional integration in the IGAD region.

Ethiopian News Agency
2023