Small ruminant pricing analysis in Ethiopia

Abstract

Small ruminant production system in Ethiopia is predominantly traditional where only small proportion of the producers adopts market oriented production system. Despite possible variations among different agro-ecologies, primarily, small ruminants are produced to fulfil unmet financial demand of households, for home consumptions, and as store of assets. Small ruminant marketing activity incorporates different marketing channels that may include farm gate sales, primary markets, secondary and terminal markets. In these markets, farmers, farmer traders, small traders, and large traders participate at different level. Price of animals at different marketing channels mainly determined by one-to-one bargaining depending on the characteristic of the animals (Kocho et al., 2011, Terefe et al., 2012). In some areas, brokers may mediate the bargaining process between buyers and sellers (Ayele et al., 2006). In additions to animals attributes, mostly price of small ruminants is affected by the overall supply and demand of the animals in a specific season and relative price of similar animals in other nearby locations (Ayele et al., 2006, Kassa et al., 2011, Andargachew and Brokken, 1993).