ADDIS ABABA, July 21– The Ethiopian government has announced that the country exported 24,200 tonnes of processed livestock products during the recently concluded fiscal year, despite challenges posed by ongoing Middle East conflicts.
The Ethiopian Ministry of Agriculture said in a statement issued Monday that the country generated 128.4 million U.S. dollars in export revenue from processed livestock products during the 2025/26 Ethiopian fiscal year, which ended on July 7.
The country had initially planned to export about 25,900 tonnes of livestock products during the reported period. Data from the ministry also showed that more than 2.4 million goats and sheep were supplied to export slaughterhouses during the fiscal year.
Middle Eastern countries have historically been the primary destinations for Ethiopia’s processed livestock products. Recent data from the Ethiopian Livestock Development Institute (LDI) indicated that the United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia and Qatar were among the top importers of the country’s livestock products during the concluded fiscal year.
Alongside the ongoing instability in the Middle East, the ministry also highlighted supply chain disruptions and illegal cross-border livestock trade as the main bottlenecks affecting the country’s livestock exports.
Meanwhile, the LDI, an institution responsible for modernizing and enhancing the productivity of Ethiopia’s livestock sector, has urged stakeholders to better capitalize on the country’s untapped livestock resources. According to the institute, despite recent improvements in the sector, the country’s share of the international market for livestock products remains minimal compared with its vast potential.
In recent years, the Ethiopian government has been working to address major constraints in the livestock sector to enhance its contribution to the national economy. As part of these efforts, export-bound livestock is currently transported via the Ethiopia-Djibouti railway to minimize transport-related stress on the animals. (Namibia Daily News / Xinhua)
