The issue

Poultry production is an important

economic activity in Ethiopia. Beside its

social and cultural benefits, it plays a

significant role in family nutrition and

poverty reduction.1 In spite of its

relevance, the FAO-STAT, 2016 shows

per capita consumption of chicken meat

in Ethiopia is low (0.6 kg) compared to

the average consumption of 4.5 kg for

Africa.

Therefore, development of the poultry

sector is one of the focus areas in the

Ethiopian development agenda. As

indicated by Livestock Master Plan

study, the overall target is to raise

chicken meat production to 164,000

tones and 3.9 billion eggs by the year

2020.

Currently the majority of chicken meat

is imported from other countries.

Ethiopian Airlines alone uses 2,000Kg of

chicken cube that is imported from

Brazil through Dubai every day to

satisfy its customers’ needs”. Hotels and

supermarkets struggle to find a

sufficient and consistent supply of high

quality poultry.

Imported poultry products by 2016, custom office

Type of imported

products

Country of origin

Volume in kg.

Whole frozen chicken,

Chicken Breast, Turkey

breast, Poultry sausage,

Ham meat Poultry,

Canned chicken, Duck

breast and different

chicken meat cuts

Saudi Arabia, Brazil,

China, Italy, France,

Thailand, Ukraine,

United states,

Germany, United

Arab Imarets,

Turkey, Indonesia

244,038.56

Food Safety and Quality in Poultry Sector of Ethiopia, case of BENEFIT-ENTAG

1 Tadelle D (1996) Studies on village poultry production systems in the central highlands of Ethiopia. M.Sc. Thesis, Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences.

Uppsala, Sweden.

2 Poultry processing: is the term used by the poultry sector to describe the conversion of live poultry in to raw poultry products fit for human consumption.

This is due to the fact that the Ethiopian poultry sector2 faces

problems throughout the value chain: farming, slaughtering house,

preparation, product storage and distribution, packing and labelling,

regulation and users.

Given the above challenges and the GTP II goal for production boost,

Ethiopian Netherlands Trade for Agricultural Growth program

(ENTAG) (2016-2019), part of the BENEFIT Partnership in Ethiopia

works to address food safety and quality challenges in poultry sector

through various interventions.

Farming:

not implementing good animal husbandry practices, not registered, use of unsafe and

substandard feeds, and irrational use of veterinary drugs and hormones

Slaughtering

house:

not authorized facilities, sub-standard facilities, such as premise, equipment, personnel

competency, practice (unhygienic practices) and health checkups (no Pre-mortem and

post-mortem health check up)

Preparation:

product preparation without implementation of Good Hygienic Practices (GHP) and

product registrations

Product storage

and distribution:

poor cold chain facilities for storage and distribution, lack of storage and distribution

facilities that can help to maintain the safety3 and qualities of poultry products,

Packaging and

labelling:

use of sub-standard packaging and not conforming to mandatory labeling requirements

Regulation:

not having Certificate of Conformity (COC) from regulatory Authority

Users:

no system put in place to differentiate the legal products from illegal ones, deliver

product on the market by having only farm license

One of ENTAG’s interventions focuses on organizing

regular platform meetings in order to identify sectoral

challenges, policy level issues and strengthen

networking among key stakeholders in the poultry

sector. Furthermore, ENTAG has been doing capacity

building activities through organizing trainings,

business to business session, company visit programs

in order to enhance the capacity of companies that

are involved in poultry production and processing.

Capacity Building Activities: Training professionals

who work in poultry processing plants (including both

theoretical and practical demonstrations both on farm

and processing plant). Professionals who are

responsible in chicken slaughtering processing and

poultry feed and feed formulation in company were

part of the training. Feed formulation in company

were part of the training.

Business to Business (B2B): ENTAG arranged B2B and

company visit programs in Netherlands. In Ethiopia,

chicken is processed manually, and the B2B session created

opportunity for Ethiopian processors to meet with Dutch

companies who are supplying modern chicken slaughtering

technologies. The Exchange visit provided an opportunity

for Ethiopian companies to learn about modern safety and

hygiene processes, despite the fact that many of the Dutch

technologies are, at present, too expensive and

sophisticated for the Ethiopian context.

Poultry Disease Prevention and Control Strategic

plan: the challenge of poultry disease control was one of

the issues mentioned in the poultry platforms by

government representatives. The Ministry of Agriculture

had then requested ENTAG to provide support in

developing the strategic plan to strengthen poultry health

and disease control and prevention in Ethiopia. ENTAG

called for the services of GD Animal Health in The

Netherlands, which together with ENTAG developed the

strategic plan with input and reflections of the relevant

Ethiopian stakeholders. The new strategy includes current

situation of poultry sector and proposed strategies.

What was done?

3 Safety: scientific discipline describing handling, preparation and storage of food in ways that prevent food borne illness. (Food hazards)

OVERVIEW OF THE CURRENT SITUATION AND CORRESPONDING

INSTITUTIONAL GAPS IN ETHIOPIA

CURRENT SITUATION

INSTITUTIONAL GAP

Absence of clear policy

Unclear roles of public and private stakeholders

Coordination between governmental stakeholders Cooperation between government and private sectors Definition of public and private tasks and implementation

Insufficient poultry knowledge

and access to knowledge

Institutional level

Government level Governmental institutional level Private sector level

Ineffective and low quality level

of (veterinary) services delivery

Lack of knowledge Structures are not designed for supporting commercial poultry

Inadequate disease prevention

and control systems and

unsatisfactory surveillance

activities

Lack of knowledge Lack of organized disease control programs Lack of funding Lack of input of the private sector Lack of Identification and Registration

References:

Girma, Tewodros. Ethiopian Food, Medicine and HealthCare Administration and control

authority (EFMHACA).2018. Presentation on an Overview of poultry and poultry products

safety and quality regulations. ENTAG poultry platform. Addis Ababa

https://www.ethiopianbusinessreview.net/index.php/topic/item/504-a-broken-value-chain-

why-ethiopia-imports-livestock-products-while-it-ranks-first-in-africa-in-resources

Teshome, Tadesse. Ethiopian Meat and Dairy Industry Development Institute (EHDIDI).

2018. Presentation on Poultry processing as means of value addition. Addis Ababa

T. Fabri & J.Wiegel, Dr Demeke Wondmagegn Mengiste, Monika Sopov. (2018). STRATEGIC

PLAN for implementation of disease prevention and control in the commercial poultry

sector of Ethiopia. Addis Ababa, Ethiopia

This briefing note was prepared by

Selamawit Firdissa in collaboration

with Dr. Demeke wondmagegn,

Poultry Coordinator Ethiopia

(ENTAG), Helen Getaw, Deputy

manager of ENTAG and Katherine

Pittore, Nutrition and Food Security

Advisor-WUR- CDI

Helen Getaw

Deputy ENTAG Project Manager

+251 911488453

Demeke Wondimagegn

Poultry Sub-Sector Coordinator

+251 911952228

https://entag.org

https://twitter.com/ENTAGprogram

https://facebook.com/ENTAGprogram

INSTITUTIONAL GAPS WITH THEIR CORRESPONDING PROPOSED INTERVENTIONS,

FOLLOWED BY PROPOSED FURTHER ACTIONS

GAP

INTERVENTION

FURTHER ACTION

1 Unclear roles of public and

private stakeholders Establish and operationalize a steering

committee Terms of Reference (ToR)

Steering Committee

2 Insufficient poultry health

knowledge and access to

knowledge

Ensure quality of veterinary education

Pilot Capacity Building Long

Term Establish a Poultry Health Expertise

Centre Pilot Poultry Health Expertise

Centre (PHEC)

Conduct a pilot program focusing on a

specific disease Pilot Capacity Building Short

Term

3 Ineffective and low quality of

(veterinary) service delivery

systems

See "Inadequate disease prevention and

control"

4 Inadequate disease prevention

and control and unsatisfactory

surveillance activities

Establish clear legislative chain of

command TOR Steering Committee

Ensure coordination between

governmental stakeholders TOR Steering Committee

Introduce registration, standardization

and pharmacological surveillance of

drugs and products

TOR Steering Committee

Introduce control and certification of

products used in poultry production TOR Steering Committee

Concentrate veterinary knowledge of

poultry diseases and health care Pilot Poultry Health Expertise

Centre (PHEC)

Introduce feasible and cost effective

prevention and control strategy Pilot Identification and

Registration (I&R), Pilot

Capacity Building Short Term,

Pilot Capacity building long

Term, Pilot Good Farming

Practice

Pictures: Chicken

slaughtering and

food safety training

by ENTAG at

Debrezeit

(Bishoftu) from

November 12-16,

2018.