The Uganda pig value chain: constraints and
characteristics of actors
Emily Ouma1, Michel Dione1, Peter Lule1,2 , Kristina Roesel1,3, Lawrence Mayega4, David Kiryabwire5, Gideon Nadiope6 , Natalie Carter1,7 and Danilo Pezo1
Pictures
Emily A. Ouma
e.a.ouma@cgiar.org ● Box 24384 Kampala ● +256 39-2-081154/5
Kampala Uganda ● ilri.org
This project is funded by IFAD/EU
This document is licensed for use under a Creative Commons Attribution –Non commercial-Share Alike 3.0
Unported License October 2013
Training of facilitators on the
application of the VC tools
Constraints
Input supply and
services
• Veterinary services and drug stockists: Para-vets are the main suppliers of veterinary and husbandry
services, each covering an average of 8-15 villages. Most of them are male (72%) with an average age of 37
years and are either diploma or certificate holders. Most also own drug shops supplying basic veterinary
products, especially de-worming drugs.
• Breeding services - village boars: 3-4 boars per village servicing up to 7-9 sows/month. Owners of village
boars- 52% males, 48% females with an average age of 45 years and 47% having at least primary level of
education. In terms of income ranking from the boar services: 24% and 36% of men and women,
respectively rank boar services as the major source of income.
• Feed stockists: Mostly male (67%) with an average age of 45 years and sole proprietorship business (81%).
They sell different feed mixtures (concentrates) for poultry, pigs and cattle. Main sources of raw materials
such as maize bran, “mukene” (fish meal), and sunflower seeds are middlemen and maize milling firms.
Pig Production
• Production is predominantly by smallholders – approximately 80%: Breeders (own 1-3 sows)
and Growers (own 1-4 grown pigs for slaughter).
• 60% of pig farm activities are managed by women, and the enterprise
is a primary income earner especially in the peri-urban areas.
• Most of the labor for the pig enterprise is supplied by women and children,
including cleaning of pens, fetching water and feeds , and watering the pigs.
• A few institutions such as NAADS and VEDCO work with communities on
aspects of the pig value chain and invest in microfinance. Some such as BRAC have credit
lines that support women groups such as those involved in pig value chains.
Collection/
Bulking
• Some traders are vertically integrated performing pig collection, transporting, slaughtering
and retailing roles. In some instances brokers living within the pig production areas link large
urban traders with growers by identifying “ready-to-market “ pigs and bulking them ready for
transportation to towns, e.g. in Kampala to slaughter slabs or Wambizzi abbatoir , the only
pig abbatoir in Uganda .
• The smaller traders buy 1-2 pigs per week for slaughtering and sale in butcheries and/or pork
joints.
• Majority of the pig traders are male (94%), having primary level of education (45%) and an
average age of 38 years.
Slaughtering
• Mainly done by men – backyard slaughters are common. A few slaughter slabs exist, with some
level of inspection by the Veterinary Officers (e.g. common slaughter point in Kamuli and Gulu
districts)
Processing
• Cutting the carcass into different “cuts” mainly done at the slaughter point. A few formal
processors such as Fresh Cuts and Farmers Choice exist – they process pork into different
products such as sausages, ham, etc.
• The backyard slaughters and slaughter slabs also cut carcass into different “cuts” with differing
prices.
Retailing
• Common retail outlets are the pork butcheries. A few females (33%) operate butcheries,
mainly sourcing pork from the backyard slaughters or slaughter slabs. Pork price in the
butcheries range from 6,000 – 7,000 UG Shilling/Kg.
• Other retail outlets include supermarkets where different pork products are sold.
Consumption
• Consumption of pork – common in pork joints, where people meet to socialize too.
Consumption forms include roasted or fried pork. Most consumers in those places are male.
 Over the past three decades pig population has increased from 0.19 to 3.2 million. In 2011,
Uganda had the highest per capita consumption of pork in Sub-Saharan Africa (3.4 kg
person-1 year-1).
 More than 1.1 million poor households (18% of total in 2008) own pigs, mostly managed by
women and children as a crop-livestock systems’ backyard activity.
 The number and types of actors in the smallholder pigs value chains is large, diverse and
complex and face different challenges.
Introduction Objective and Methodology
 To assess the structure of the pig value chain and identify constraints at various nodes.
 Questionnaire surveys in the form of individual interviews were conducted in 3 districts:
Masaka, Mukono and Kamuli in May-August 2013 covering feed stockists (n = 36), live pig
traders (n=86), village veterinarians (n = 53), agro-veterinary stockists (n = 36), village
boars owners (n = 90), pork retailers (n = 20), and pig farmers (n = 348).
 Focus group discussions were also held with approx. 1400 pig farmers in 35 villages using
structured checklists utilizing various Participatory Rural Appraisal (PRA) tools.
o Risk of disease transmission
between boars and sows and
poor feeding.
o Scarcity and price fluctuations
of raw materials for feeds.
o Expensive and fluctuating
price of drugs.
o Inputs (feeds, drugs) and services
are generally expensive, of poor
quality and not easily accessible.
o Limited output markets and poor
bargaining power due to lack of
organization and lack of
information on pig weights.
o Poor access to extension services
and market information, especially
for women.
o Lack of capacity on low cost easy to
prepare feed rations.
o Lack of record keeping.
o High transaction costs (search and
transportation).
o Poor quality pigs – poor
management or diseased.
o Unstructured pig meat inspection
and lack of inspection capacity due to
minimal training on pig production
and health in the curriculum.
o Very few formal processors -
monopolistic tendencies.
o Lack of contracts between
producers and processors.
Characteristic of actorsFunction
o Pork delivery delays.
o Inability to meet consumer demand
– preference for less fat.
o Unreliable electricity supply – pork
storage.
1International Livestock Research Institute, Kampala-Uganda, 2Department of Agribusiness and Natural Resources Economics, Makerere University, 3Freie Universität Berlin, Germany, 4 Masaka Municipality, 5Mukono
Municipality, 6 Volunteer Efforts for Development Concerns (VEDCO) , and 7University of Guelph