Understanding chicken and vegetable value chains in Harar
and Dire Dawa, Ethiopia: Food safety perspectives
Kebede Amenu
Webinar
20 May 2020

Field team
 ILRI
– Theodore Knight-Jones
– Lina Mego
– Blen Damtew (Admin)
 Addis Ababa University
– Kebede Amenu
– Megarsa Bedasa
– Hable Worku
– Mitiku Wamile
 Haramaya University
– Abdulmuen Mohammed Ibrahim
– Mukarem Taha
– Kemal Kasim Ahmed
2

Introduction
 Food production and processing are passing through a
lot of chains and food safety issues should be
addressed across the whole value chains
 Domination of informal food markets
 Links among the various chains are lacking or imperfect
 Value chain mapping to generate improving food
handling practices and minimize the associated health
risks
 The study is part of the “Urban food markets in Africa:
incentivizing food safety using a pull-push approach”
project (Pull-push project)
3

Objectives
 To understand typical consumer food purchase,
preparation and consumption practices and
preferences, and perceptions of food quality and safety
related to poultry meat and common vegetables.
 To understand how the main retailer types typically
source, transport, store, process and sell poultry meat
and key vegetables, and specifically identify food
safety issues.
 To understand how main producers typically produce
and distribute poultry meat and key vegetables with
interest in understanding aspects relevant to food
safety.
4

Study area
 Two major cities in Eastern Ethiopia
5
Characteristics Dire Dawa Harar
Distance from Addis
Ababa (km)
515 510
Altitude (metres
above sea level)
1204 1917
Human population 466,000 24,600
Number of urban
kebeles*
9 19
Number of rural
kebeles*
38 17
*A kebele is the smallest administrative demarcation in Ethiopia with a
human population of 3500-4000

Data collection
 Qualitative data collection methods
– key-informant interviews (KII),
– in-depth interviews (IDI)
– focus group discussions (FGD)
 Semi-structured questions guides were prepared
based on previous works and used for qualitative data
collection
6

Data collection…
 KII: people working in different local government offices
– Health
– Agriculture
– Trade &Industry
– Tourism
 KIIs: agricultural and food value chains specifically
poultry and vegetable focusing on food safety and the
consequences associated with food-borne diseases
7

Data collection…
 FGDs: with different with socio-economic status
(income groups)
 Income information obtained from health extension
workers as a standard, one health extension is
expected to follow and give advice for about 500
households.
 A total of six FGDs (three in each study sites) were
conducted  urban neighborhoods typically
representing low, medium and high income were
selected
 FGD lasted 2-3 hours and facilitated by a hired rural
development professional with note taker.
8

Data collection…
 IDIs were held with different value chain actors
including retailers and producers of vegetables and live
chicken or chicken meat.
 Questions guides were prepared for various value
chain actors (chicken/vegetable producers and
retailers, and the guides modified according to the
value chain actors
 The duration of interviews varied depending on the
type of producers and retailers.
9

Data analysis…
 Audio records were transcribed
 Notes taken organized related to the audio data
 Qualitative analysis (narrative)
10

Results
 Results presented under the following topics
– Chicken and vegetable consumers
– Chicken retailers
– Chicken producers
– Vegetable retailers
– Vegetable producers
11

Results: Chicken and vegetable
consumers
 Animals source foods (ASF) and vegetables availability and
use
 ASF: beef, mutton, chicken meat, goat meat,
camel meat, egg, fish and milk or milk products
 Vegetables: onion, potato, tomato, lettuce,
beetroot, cabbage, green pepper and all other
green vegetables
12

Results…
 Consumption practice varied among income groups (low,
middle and high)
 High income- good knowledge on nutritional value of
food and have access to ASF regularly
 Low income-no choice regarding their meal types and
eat simply what is available at their disposal consume
low price food especially poor quality vegetables and
meat.
 Meat including chicken meat is consumed only during
special events (festivities) among low income
 ASF is not consumed among Ethiopian Orthodox religion
followers during fasting days (a total of 180-250 days),
55 continuous days before Easter
13

Results: Seasonal availability
 Wet versus dry season for vegetables: during dry
season, vegetables are much less available compared to
the wet season
 Holidays: chicken meat is highly supplied during Muslim
and Christian holidays such as Gena (Christmas),
Fasika (Ethiopian Easter), Arefa, and Mawlid
14

Results: Sources of vegetables and
chicken
 Chicken sources:
– Locally from surrounding districts (live chicken)
– Informal slaughter place (Dire Dawa)
– Central Ethiopia (dressed)
– Cross-border trade (Somaliland, origin Brazil)-frozen dressed
 Vegetable sources
– Central Rift Valley of Ethiopia (major for onion and
tomato)
– Locally produced, peri-urban and surrounding rural
areas (small-sized tomato not preferred)
15

16

Results: quality and safety
 KII
– Low awareness about food hygiene among the community in the
area
– disposal of low quality vegetables on main road may cause
environmental pollution
 FGD:
– Concern over chemicals used on vegetable farms can be
dangerous for consumers and environment
– Low income groups buy low quality vegetables
– High income groups purchase high quality live chicken and
vegetables Live chicken?
17

Results: Options for food safety
improvement
 KII
– Health extension programs (largely focused on nutrition, food
and environmental hygiene as a package)
– Many projects worked on food security than food safety
 FGD:
– More work needed in terms of regulation of food
production and retailing (especially related to informal
slaughtering of chicken
– Producing quality production assisted with advanced
technology.
– Awareness creation in producing quality
– Collaboration among chicken and vegetables value
chain actors concerning with food safety
18

Chicken retailers: types of
commodities
 Live chicken: Often sold on street side
19

Types of commodities and sources
 Roasted or cooked chicken or chicken stew
(doro wot)
20
https://cdn.shopify.com/s/files/1/0984/4296/articles/Caviar_dor
o_wot_1000x.jpg?v=1498693512

Types of commodities and sources
 Freshly dressed-informal slaughterhouse:
portioned or whole chicken carcass
21
 Loosely covered with plastic material, sold in the same
place or transported to restaurants or hotels

Types of commodities and sources
 Dressed
frozen
22

Sources of chicken
23

Criteria for retailers in purchasing
chicken or meat
 Hygiene during processing (worker, equipment,
environmental) and handling
 Healthiness and free of trauma
 Standards of transportation, packaging and storage
 Quality of product
 Weight and size (the weight and the size affects the
price)
 Price (a criterion for different socioeconomic groups)
 Expiry date (for packed chicken meat)
24

Retailers: Options for improvement
 Equipment sanitation and staff and environmental
hygiene should be good
 Searching for source of quality product supply and
focus on hygiene than price
 Make long-term agreement with suppliers that fulfill
standard packaging, storing and transportation
principle.
 Washing properly during slaughtering.
 Cleaning refrigerator and adjust appropriate
temperature; Use generator during electric cut off.
25

Chicken producers
 Backyard, village level producers
 Urban/peri-urban medium scale producers
 Commercial large-scale producers: Spent
layers or in few cases broilers
26

Producers: Options for
improvement
 Getting support from government (e.g.
regarding space limitation and training need)
 Effective vaccination, feeding and watering
 Effective management and improving
biosecurity measures to prevent disease
outbreak
27

Summary of value chains
 Producer: they produce live chicken in rural areas
 Collectors: purchase and collect live chicken locally from
small markets
 Middlemen/trader/broker : connect businessmen and
live chicken source, then supplies live chicken for
retailers
 Slaughter men: receives live chickens from different
sources, slaughters and dresses them.
 Retailer/mini-market: dressed chicken
 Hotels/restaurants: serve consumers by cooking, frying
and roasting chicken meat for consumers.
 Consumers: consumer of the chicken products.
28

29
Medium or large
producers (spent-
laying hens)
(6%)**
Consumers
(For home slaughter
and preparation)
Traders and
transporters (getting
info from middlemen)Input
suppliers (e.g.
medicine,
feeds,
vaccines etc)
Live chicken
retailers or
display
(Harar/DD)
Restaurants/Hotels
(Slaughtering)Village backyard
producers (chicken
scavenging on
field) 90%
Retailers at
Districts
Collectors from
village
Village markets
Backyard
slaughtering Restaurants/Hotels
(to prepare Ready-
to-eat for
customers)
Packed frozen chicken meat
from Central Ethiopia or Cross-
border (e.g., from Brazil through
Somaliland* (4%)
Consumers
Ready-to-
eat
Mini-markets/Shops
(Chicken meat
retailers)

30
Without scalding (5%)
defeathering
Evisceration
Dressing of skin
with feather
Washing Washing Portioning Transportation
to home
Washing with
water and lemon
Slaughter (cutting neck)
Serving **
Transport by putting
15-20 in plastic bags
to hotels/restaurants
Refrigerator
Washing with cold
water, lemon and salt
Holding/without
holding
Cooking
Portioning/without
portioning
Cooking (stewing)
Serving
Backyard slaughtering: chicken meat suppliers for hotels/restaurants and Home
Evisceration

Vegetable retailers
 Three types of vegetable
retailers:
– Street vendors
– Medium size
– Large sized (wholesaler)
31

Retailers: Options for improvement
 Buy good produce and provide quality produce to
consumers
 Careful handling of the produces in hygienic and safe
way
 Use appropriate grading, standard packaging, grading
and storage
 Sorting damaged from normal from time to time
 Cleaning the store and opening the house every day
for air circulation
 Prevent rodent access to vegetables
 Transport the produce by using refrigerated trucks and
storage
32

Vegetable producers
 Locally produced
 Central Rift Valley of
Ethiopia
33

Central Rift Valley
34

Suggestion for improvement
 Use safe chemicals for managing pests and diseases
 Availability of market chain
 Awareness regarding quality production
 Getting seeds, fertilizers and chemicals on time
 Standard storage for my produces
 Searching for expert advice on production of
vegetables starting from land preparation to post
harvest management.
35

Summary of value chains
36

Acknowledgements

This presentation is licensed for use under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International Licence.
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