The Livestock Development Institute said some 86 million US dollars have been earned in revenue from the exports of animal products during the past eleven months.

Deputy Director General of the institute, Sahlu Mulu told ENA that the revenue has been gained by exporting meat, honey, camel milk and offal products to different countries around the globe.

Among the countries where the meat products are exported are: the United Arab Emirates, Qatar and Oman are the major destinations, Sahlu pointed out.

Moreover, Vietnam, Hong Kong, Nigeria and Kenya are also the places where the offal products have been sent, he added.

During the stated period, some 20,000 tons of animal products were supplied to the foreign market, Sahlu indicated.

The deputy director mentioned the ongoing effort to maximize the value of animal products and bring them to the foreign market in the current fiscal year. As a result, better results were recorded compared to last budget year.

“A plan was prepared that animal products and products should not be provided to markets without value additions. To this end, a plan was made to process and deliver 22 thousand tons of animal products to the domestic and foreign markets. Of this, close to 20 tons of animal products, which is 90 percent of the target, were processed by industries and delivered to local and foreign markets.”

Currently, the director added products of sheep and goat are the major export items of Ethiopia.

Livestock Development Institute is working hard to expand market destination areas for animal production and products, Sahlu stated.

Thus, he pointed out that agreements have been reached with Cambodia, Seychelles and Azerbaijan as a new market destination for Ethiopian animal products.

Source: Ethiopian News Agency