Sliced up and weighed: Kenya’s first meat expo gives stakeholders a common platform to discuss improvement

The Kenya Meat Commission stall at the November 18-19, 2021 meat expo and conference in Nairobi.

Photo credit: Sammy Waweru | Nation Media Group

By Evans Ongwae

Kenya, it is said, has an annual deficit of 300,000 tonnes of meat, a sizzling opportunity for enterprising individuals and institutions, to fill the gap. That figure excludes the country’s export potential.

Meat, a popular food, was the exclusive subject of the country’s first expo and conference on the product, hosted on November 18-19, 2021, at the famous Kenyatta International Convention Centre (KICC) in Nairobi.

Hundreds of players in the meat value chain, from farmers to transporters to processors, marketers, financiers, equipment distributors, government agencies, non-governmental organisations (NGOs), development partners, and consumers, participated at the event. Expert panellists led eye-opening discussions.

On the first day of the exposition organised by the Nation Media Group and an array of partners, government officials indicated in a special 16-page newspaper pull-out that the best was yet to come for the industry.

Led by Agriculture, Livestock, Fisheries and Co-operatives cabinet secretary (CS) Peter Munya, the officials revealed that the government had initiated the process of reforming the industry.

CS Munya said some of the pieces of legislation that governed the livestock industry were obsolete, contradictory or irrelevant, and were being reviewed to make them relevant to the current situation. Others, he said, would be consolidated, and some expunged altogether.

To create a more enabling environment, six policies, seven Bills, 10 livestock regulations and 11 strategies and plans, will be developed or reviewed, the CS said.

The State Department of Livestock, headed by principal secretary (PS) Harry Kimtai, is developing a livestock master-plan to cover 10 priority livestock value chains of all the meat animals legally allowable in the country.

The PS revealed that the department was also enhancing skills to support the meat industry. More than 2,000 students are expected to graduate from livestock training institutions. The department is set to recruit 3,000 animal health interns and train 4,010 stakeholders on livestock production.

The government appreciates that the meat industry provides a most elaborate pathway out of poverty, food and nutrition insecurity, including among those who do not own land.

For that reason, the government is putting up four export standard slaughterhouses in livestock-rich counties of Wajir, Isiolo and Garissa, in addition to the national Kenya Meat Commission (KMC).

The Government of Kenya established KMC in 1950 as a meat processing plant for both domestic and export markets, in addition to serving the strategic function of being the last resort buyer of farmers’ meat animals.

KMC has two meat processing plants: One at Athi River in Machakos County near Nairobi, and the other in Mombasa County at Kenya’s coast.

PS Kimtai pointed out that the arid and semi-arid areas of Kenya supplied over 85 percent of total read meat animals for the country. These comprised indigenous beef cattle, namely Small East African Zebus, Galla goats and sheep, produced through extensive pastoral systems relying mostly on natural pastures.

The government, he said, had put in place systems to maximise livestock production. They include the provision of extension and animal health services; development of water supply systems for livestock through the construction of dams, pans and supply of piped water; development of market infrastructure, including sale yards and auction rings; and the establishment of a national livestock market information system (NLMIS), which currently covers over 20 markets.

The activities are undertaken in collaboration with county governments, and with support from development partners, notably the European Union, USAID, GIZ, IRLI, JICA, DFID, and governments such as Israel, Denmark, Hungary, and Poland.

The Kenya Meat Expo and Conference gave the country the opportunity to explore ways of enabling the meat industry to hit new heights and realise its true potential. Various institutions got the opportunity to share their insights on the meat industry.

For example, the Meat and Livestock Exporters Industry Council of Kenya (KEMLEIC), formed in June 2016 by seven committed meat exporters, got the opportunity to explain to potential members as well as the market, what it offers.

KEMLEIC comprises meat and livestock exporters, producers, transporters, slaughterhouses and processors, and has the vision to revolutionise livestock and meat production systems in Kenya.

Other stakeholders pushed for greater attention to be paid to camels, a key source of meat in the arid and semi-arid lands (ASALs), particularly in the north-eastern parts of the country.

Facts on meat hygiene, myths on red meat and quality issues also featured in the 16-page pull-out that curtain-raised the event.

Ida Kemunto, content creator with kitchen equipment experts Sheffield Africa, shared tips on effective ways to store and preserve meat.

She said: “This product is the most difficult to store and the most expensive food item sold by the hospitality industry. Therefore, the quality of cold chain management in its supply system is of utmost importance. It determines both safety and quality levels of the meat and meat products that ultimately reach the consumer.”

More stories about Kenya’s meat sector, click here.