ALLIANCE for Commodity and Trade in Eastern and Southern Africa (ACTESA) has said Africa’s share in meat exports has continued to remain less than one per cent.

According ACTESA manager for Livestock Programmes Abdiweli Mohamed, this is despite an increase in global demand for meat.

“There is therefore need for African countries to put in place measures that will ensure an improvement in production of livestock like cattle, goats, sheep and camels,” he said.

Mohamed said developing countries like Asia, Latin America and Africa could contribute the largest share in the growth of the global meat market.
“With current trends, by the year 2017, developing countries like Asia will be importing 2.8 million metric tonnes, Europe 0.8 million metric tonnes, North America 0.4 million metric tonnes and Africa one million metric tonnes of meat,” he said.

Mohamed said there was need to ensure that measures such as livestock disease eradication were put in place so that Africa could benefit from the growing demand in meat and boost its trade and exports.
“Meat demand globally is increasing and will continue to increase. Therefore, Africa has to take its place in this market as well,” he pointed out.
Mohamed said livestock production in Africa was mainly affected by high cost of production and diseases.

“Farmers in the region should also ensure that they also use technology to improve livestock production,” he said. “Once production challenges are dealt with, other measures should be found that will deal with the marketing aspect.”
Mohamed said the livestock sector, if well developed, could help to reduce poverty in rural African countries that depended on livestock production as a source of income.