Economics of cattle and meat marketing in the Ivory Coast : a summary

Based on 18 months of field research, this paper analyzes these changes and identifies constraints to expanding the cattle and meat trades. Discussed in turn are the evolution and current organization of the Ivorian cattle and meat trades, the need for improved infrastructure, and the problems and costs of transporting cattle and meat to and within the Ivory Coast. Also examined are the determinants of the most profitable location for slaughter and the implications of cattle and meat price patterns for the financial viability of proposed cattle fattening projects. The author concludes that the traditional marketing system is quite efficient, given the infrastructure and institutional framework within which it operates, and that large-scale restructuring to develop a government monopoly, as attempted in Ghana, would be a costly and inefficient use of government resources. The alternative, judged more likely to succeed, is to concentrate on relieving transportation and infrastructural constraints in the marketing system, in the hope that competition will then drive down gross marketing margins. Government and donor planners should work with traditional cattle traders and butchers to develop mutually acceptable improvements. (Author abstract, modified)