Press Release

Djibouti Livestock Export Facility Begins Animal Testing

Potential US$ 6 Million Income for Horn of Africa

Djibouti  |

A pilot livestock quarantine facility began testing goats and sheep this week, the first step toward renewing sanitary exports of African livestock to The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and the other countries of the Middle East. The potential economic benefits, this year alone, of this renewed livestock export from the Horn of Africa has been estimated at upwards of US$ 6 million.

Disease outbreaks in the Arabian Peninsula of Rift Valley Fever resulted in an export ban of livestock from Africa. The ban of animal imports from the region remains in effect and “official” export numbers have since bottomed out to a mere 25 percent of pre-ban trade. However, the illicit exportation of animals to the Middle East, mostly through the Somalia regions, involves nearly 3 million animals a year.

The Djibouti Livestock Export Facility, a joint project between Djibouti Chamber of Commerce, the United States Agency for International Development and the Red Sea Livestock Trade Commission (a division of AU-IBAR) will have the capacity to export 80,000 animals a month. The price per head, once the ban is lifted, for animals coming through the facility is expected to rise to $50 from the $30 now being paid mostly by middlemen engaged in illegal trade. That is an increase of 40 percent, all of which will accrue to the region’s pastoralists, traders and the facility’s Djiboutian workforce.

“This facility will improve the income of the rural poor and enhance their food security,” says Dr. Jotham Musiime, Former Director of AU-IBAR.  “Pastoralists in the Horn of Africa will, as a result of this export facility, have more money”.

Middle Eastern countries are dependent on the importation of livestock. The high point of the yearly market for sheep and goats to the Middle East, and the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia in particular, occurs during the annual pilgrimage to Mecca for the Haj, which will occur in early January 2006.

The trade in livestock between the Horn and the Middle East is vital to the economies and food security of the Horn of Africa. The on-going ban has caused considerable hardship to the region’s pastoralists, for whom the export trade in livestock is a primary source of income. For the Horn itself, the livestock trade is a major source of foreign exchange.

“The Djibouti Livestock Export Facility project has raised awareness among the stakeholders and the livestock producers that they should do things properly. The facility will pave the way toward lifting the ban, where governments and politicians can not do it by themselves.  Renewed and enhanced trade requires this public/private public partnership” says Dr. Musiime.

The $2.1 million Djibouti Livestock Export Facility will inspect, test and quarantine up to 80,000 animals a month, to assure the animals are not carriers of diseases harmful to the economies and people of the importing countries. The first shipment for export is expected to be ready in early July.