Business Plan for Livestock (Small Ruminants) Marketing

The most critical factor bearing on the Nigerian meat industry is the presence of the import ban which creates a protected, captive high-price market for producers and drives-up prices for domestic consumers. As demand for red meat exceeds supply, everything that the meat sector can produce is sold. Red meat prices have increased sharply at  a rate of 20% per annum for the last twenty years against an underlying inflation rate around 12%.

At present, large scale ranches for small ruminants (Cows, Goats and Sheep) are few in Nigeria. The nomadic Fulanis provide over 85 percent of Nigerian beef supplies i.e. most of Nigeria’s sheep and goats are in the north, where the Fulani maintain an approximate ratio of 30 percent sheep and goats to 70 percent cattle. About 40 percent of northern non Fulani farming households are estimated to keep sheep and goats.

However, the meat sold from both Fulani and non Fulani sources are often from emaciated livestock without vet care, diseased and not traceable for disease control management purposes. Moreover, the Fulani nomadic system of production is increasingly coming under pressure from rapidly changing social, economic and political situations as Nigeria develops. At the same time, an increasing number of consumers want healthier meat from regulated livestock growers and slaughterhouses.

This present situation has created business opportunities for ranches, slaughter houses and ruminants marketing intermediaries that can fatten ruminants under healthier conditions and set up a tracking system for disease control management .