| Abstract: | In the Afar region of Ethiopia livestock subsector contributed the greatest share to the
agricultural regional real gross domestic product. So, improving the competitiveness of meat
export chain is considered to be crucial. Therefore, this study aimed to assess the challenges of
livestock market linkage between Afar livestock cooperatives and export abattoirs to enhance
competitiveness for the greater benefit. Both primary and secondary data were used for the
analysis. The primarily data were collected through structured questionnaire prepared for
livestock cooperatives, export abattoirs, government official and traders; whereas, the
secondary data obtained from reports published and unpublished documents. Cross- sectional
research design was conducted on 25 livestock cooperatives officials, 39 export abattoirs
managers, 13 governmental and non-governmental officials and 15 traders and collectors.
Purposive sample selection method was employed to select the targeted samples. Jointly, in
order to achieve the objectives of this study and thereby to give answer for its problems,
quantitative research approach was used by the researcher. Both descriptive and inferential
statistics were used to analyze the data. For this purpose SPSS software was used. So, the study
found that, quality, market information and supply have a significant impact on
competitiveness. However, efficiency market facilities, government structure, access to credit
service are not determinants of competitiveness. That is if the cooperatives want to escalate up
the meat export industry, they should work more on those three factors. In other word those
three factors can make a better livestock market linkage between livestock cooperatives and
export abattoir. But, currently the overall findings of this study indicated that the presence of
big gapes on those areas. |
