SUMMARY
Portfolio Lake Zone -Tanzania
CONNECTING THE MWANZA CONNECTING THE MWANZA CONNECTING THE MWANZA CONNECTING THE MWANZA
RED MEAT VALUE CHAINRED MEAT VALUE CHAINRED MEAT VALUE CHAINRED MEAT VALUE CHAIN
From farm to fork, the processing of red meat in Mwanza, Tanzania’s 2nd
largest city, faces inter-connected challenges. The red meat value chain in
Mwanza relies on intertwined systems of formal and informal processes that
interdependently employ thousands - while realizing gain for very few.
Ensuring quality red meat is produced in Mwanza begins by ensuring that
quality cattle enter the city’s value chain. However, while the lake zone region
is host to a high number of quality cows, farmers are often discouraged to
supply prime cattle to Mwanza’s livestock markets.
Cattle sales are often dictated by a series of middlemen that purchase animals
directly from the farm at bargain prices so as to ensure high trader profits.
While traders maintain their market savvy via mobile phone communication
with markets countrywide, cattle producers are often unaware of where
markets are even located – far less the actual value of a single head in their
herd. As a result, farmers choose to sell cows of that are in poor health,
underweight, and old in age (to allow for the maximum production of calves).
These weakened cattle enter Mwanza meat processing and handling facilities
that suffer the consequences of decades of minimal maintenance investments.
In an environment where hygienic meat processing is nearly impossible to
achieve, product quality is further compromised during high stress animal
handling and minimal animal and meat inspection in the Mwanza abattoir.
Pick-up trucks, motorcycles, bicycle all act as means to transport meat
throughout the city to the hundreds of local butcheries dotting Mwanza’s
landscape. However, formal or informal, butcheries uniformly lack electricity
(and hence refrigeration), possess little access to water, and confront a
regulatory and economic climate that makes improvement nearly impossible to
achieve.
In this scenario conditions, practices and relationships are universally strained
amongst those struggling to make a daily living in the Mwanza red meat sector.
In building positive connections amongst value chain actors, SNV Lake
Zone organised a “Swammersion” event aimed at joining expertise from various
stakeholders in advancing the red meat trade in Mwanza City.
Listening and Sharing - page 2
Cornering the Market - page 3
Abattoir: Organized Chaos - page 4
A loss making cow - page 4
Formal versus Informal - page 5
One link at the time - page 6
IN THIS BRIEF SNV LAKE ZONE
Red Meat Value ChainRed Meat Value ChainRed Meat Value Chain Red Meat Value Chain
Connecting the Mwanza Red Meat Value Chain
Diagram 1. The Red
Meat Value Chain as
presently operating in
Mwanza City
Taken from:
In the Red - Synthesis
Report of Hygienic and
Economic Capacity
within Mwanza City
Red Meat Value Chain
(RMVC) Infrastructure
by TSAEE (Tanzania
Society of Agricultural
Extension and
Education)
2011
The Mwanza Red Meat Value Chain consists of four
main components that operate within the city
boundaries of Ilemela and Nyamangana Districts and
managed by the Mwanza City Council. These are the
secondary cattle market, the City’s abattoir,
transporters and meat outlets. All actors within these
areas operate inter-dependently to earn their
livelihoods and move meat from the field to the plate.
Through extensive interviews amongst actors and
stakeholders it is evident that the actual function of
the industry is dependent upon numerous outflows to
informal and external market avenues. Mapping of the
value chain (see the diagram below) has revealed
THE MWANZA RED MEAT VALUE CHAIN
significant issues in accountability amongst public and
private sector actors that contribute to the fractured
status of the value chain. These include; (1) Inefficient
centralized arrangement of infrastructure, (2)
Ineffective management to maintain adequate levy
collection and ensure minimal product quality and (3)
Lack of ability to supply red meat of sufficient quality.
These circumstances in value chain management by
the Mwanza City Council have increasingly acted to
degrade product quality while creating a non-
conducive environment to formal market participation
by value chain stakeholders.
LISTENING AND SHARING
This “swammersion” event was developed by SNV Lake Zone staff and
combines the elements of earlier exercises undertaken in other sectors.
The swarming process is a rapid multi-disciplinary inquiry into an issue
within a sector, while immersion is intended to allow individuals to
directly engage in the day to day lives of local people.
The main objectives of the exercise were to: (1) clarify and validate key
issues within value chain and linkages between actors, (2) identify
strategic processes and priorities for the next phase and (3) gain in-
depth perspective of key processes. Seven teams were assembled and
each given an specific focus (e.g. cattle trading). Nearly 50 participants
were encouraged to participate in the red meat process in order to gain
intimate knowledge of the sector and discuss solutions. The exercise
took place between 24-26 August 2011.
Page 2
Members of a Swammersion team
discussing cattle prices with a trader
at Igoma secondary market.
SNV Tanzania - Lake Zone
The outlook on life of a cattle farmer, whether rural or
on semi-rural peripheries of Mwanza City, can be
called traditional. Children are often taken from
school to herd cattle and the sale of livestock is mostly
decided by men. Farmers prefer to use traditional
medicine to treat cows in case of disease as getting
assistance from veterinary professionals can be
tedious and costly. While livestock theft (and mob
justice) is a common problem, the rapid growth of
Mwanza causes loss of an entirely different nature –
available grazing land.
Teams in the field visited three cattle keeping
households in the Mwanza area. These cattle farmers
tend to keep an average of 20 cows of which 3 are sold
annually in order to earn, at best, 300,000 TZS per
cow. However, farmers describe livestock markets as
remote, troublesome and expensive to access. As a
result, they tend to rely on local cattle vendors, who
can purchase cows at prices as low as 80,000 TZS.
More than generating income, cattle are often sold
due to their poor health or old age so as to remove
weak head from the herd. From a farmer perspective,
it’s better to sell an older cow so as to ensure the
production of as many calves as possible.
Page 3
Veterinary inspection was virtually invisible despite
the sale of obviously weak animals.
The system of trading is dictated by a long line of
cattle traders that discourage the use of transparent
sytems such as auctioning. This has brought
discouragement to cattle keepers, who have been
reluctant to bring cattle to the primary markets. While
the traders use their mobile phones to get current
livestock prices in Arusha and Dar es Salaam, livestock
keepers are deprived of this information. Farmers’
organizations who could give farmers such information
are few and are yet to organize this. Buyers and sellers
at the markets could also benefit from the accessibility
to livestock weighbridges, which are not operational at
the moment. This would help buyers and sellers to
come to a fairer price of livestock.
Cattle fatteners were visited in the Igoma area, where
also the secondary cattle market is situated. Most of
their cattle are being fed maize or sorghum stalks,
supplemented by cotton cake, which is readily
available as cotton is a cash crop in the Lake Zone.
Most fattened cattle end up in Dar es Salaam or
Comoros to fetch prices as high as 1 million shillings.
CORNERING THE MARKETS
In Tanzania marketing of cattle normally goes through
two markets. Primary Markets should be the place
where producers bring their livestock to be sold to
traders and the secondary market is where cattle is
resold to butchers and exporters. The two teams that
visited these markets came to the conclusion that
both types of markets operate with little to no
management. Fee collection, essential to maintaining
upkeep of facilities, was often sporadic and non-
reflective of the actual volume of on-site sales.
SECURITY IN NUMBERS
Cattle at Igoma Secondary Market waiting to be taken to the abbatoir
ORGANIZED CHAOS
During the final plenary session heated discussions
took place between the participants on the question if
Mwanza produces quality meat. Many agreed that the
cattle of the Lake Zone region are of high quality, but
the slaughtering and meat processing is below
acceptable standards. Some argued that Mwanza in
spite of these shortcomings still produces meat of high
standard. However, teams in the field found that
cattle making their way towards the Mwanza abattoir
were generally of poor condition and in an overall
weakened state.
Travelling by hoof from rural markets to overcrowded
holding pens with limited water and feed, cattle spend
their final days in a high degree of stress that
adversely affects the quality of meat. With unused
cattle corridors and stun boxes, this stress continues
as cows are dragged backwards to await the fate of a
slit throat amongst the dozens of carcasses strewn
about the single room of the Mwanza abattoir.
While security is officially described as “tight”, the
abattoir has no perimeter fence to restrict access by
unauthorised people.
(Continued on page 4)
Page 4
FEELING THE CUT
Butchers in Mwanza
City are often per-
ceived as the party
gaining the greatest cut
of the profits. One
team spent two days
following a butcher
from the purchase of a
cow at the secondary
market to delivery of
meat to his butcher
shop. This required
from the butcher nu-
merous small invest-
ments that cumula-
tively contribute to a
very low profit margin.
of 5.28%. This leaves
little room for error in
everyday business
practices and some-
thing as routine as a
liver failing inspection
or underestimating cat-
tle weight (can elimi-
nate a day’s profit al-
together.
Profitability for a
butcher is further chal-
lenged when it is con-
sidered that products
and by-products from their purchased cow (such as
feet, heads, tongues and blood) make their way to in-
formal avenues of sale and realize 100% profit for oth-
ers.
After joining the butcher and reviewing the records, it
realized that after investing a full day in purchasing a
cow, ensuring its passage through the local abattoir
and finally getting the meat to his stall - it made a
loss!
COMMUNITY SLAUGHTERING
AND SLABS
Given less than desirable conditions at the Mwanza
abattoir, locals commonly described to teams in the
field that slaughtering takes place daily in unrecorded
locations. Although considered illegal, due to the lack
of veterinary officer oversight, cattle are often killed in
places ranging from under trees to backyards and
garages.
An alternative employed in rural communities in the
use of slaughter slabs - an open air concrete surface
that serves to act as a small scale abattoir. Within the
more rural outskirts of Mwanza’s boundaries there are
2 slabs located at Igombe and Kayenze. Here an
average of five animals per day are slaughtered under
basic conditions, but with veterinary supervision.
Teams in the field were surprised to see slabs visited
only a month earlier to have undergone substantial
upgrading with expansions to the slaughtering area
and the addition of a roof.
Profit/Loss Account of the followed
cow from market to butcher.
It is estimated that upwards of 70 people, of varying
degrees of formal employment, are inside the
slaughtering hall at any given time. The skinning,
gutting and cutting of the carcass takes place in a
single spot (no line passing is employed) by a lone
cutters paid by butchers to process a minimum of 3
cattle.
Apart from the butchers and their cutters there are
cattle handlers, skinners, stomach and intestine
cleaners, collectors of by-products (hides, skulls,
hooves and blood), butcher owners, traders and
inspectors. The common requirement for their
presence in the slaughter hall is simply a white coat -
blood free or not withstanding.
Meat inspection at the abattoir is basic with only
applying clinical vision and no access to scientific
equipment to undertake other tests. No proper rooms
are in operation to dispose of rejected meat and
conflicting roles amongst minimal staff undermine on
site authority for enforcing inspection standards. The
situation in the abattoir can be best described as
organised chaos.
(Continued from page 3)
Chaotic scenes at Mwanza abattoir
Connecting the Mwanza Red Meat Value Chain
Page 5
FORMAL TIES
From the abattoir, red meat continues in many
directions and means to Mwanza consumers. Some
meat finds its way to butchers and institutions within
the covered receptacles of MCC’s licensed meat vans
and motorbikes. Other meat, largely directed to the
informal sector, travels unofficially by a multitude of
methods from wheelbarrows and buckets to bicycles
and bags. All meat travels unrefrigerated and the
purchased carcasses and intestines (along with
associated bacteria) from multiple butchers are rarely
separated.
Most meat ends up at one of the hundreds of local
butcher stalls in Mwanza. Here, it is displayed in open
air as refrigeration is a rare and costly luxury.
Although standards have been set by the Central
government for butchers (such as tiled surfaces,
running water, and screened doors/windows), they
are seldom all present. Municipal health officials are
empowered to close butchers, but this is rarely done
as non-adherence to all by-laws is uniform amongst
almost every local butcher in operation.
Organizations such as the Mwanza City Butchers
Association (MWACIBA) have attempted to set
minimum prices in order to secure profits significant
enough to improve their butcheries. However, it was
found that price controls were often undermined by
non-members. A challenge for MWACIBA members
has become how to increase their share of the market
without increasing cost burdens to consumers.
The high end of the red meat market is dominated by
only a few players, mainly in the central part of
Mwanza city. These modern butchers operate with
proper refrigeration and improved handling and
Open display of meat and intestines at a sub-standard butcher
The informal red meat sector should not be
underestimated in scale and extent. Informal
processes, from selling to slaughtering to sales, are
conservatively estimated to account for greater than
60% of the Mwanza red meat trade. This was further
confirmed amongst teams in the field as all parties
regularly encountered informal operators delivering
services at every point of the Mwanza red meat value
chain.
While providing a source of livelihood for a multitude
of large and small operators, the informal sector
additionally supplies affordable meat to hundreds of
thousands of consumers on a daily basis. While
quality control is viewed as limited in informal
operations, to many in Mwanza their level of service
and product delivery is seen as similar to that of their
formal counterparts.
Pieces of
stomach for sale
at a stall at
Igoma market.
INFORMAL REALITIES
A cooking lady
buying meat scraps
of a hoof from a
vendor, who has
acquired hooves
from the
abattoir.
Uncooked meat mixed with
grilled pieces. Basic
knowledge of proper meat
handling is unknown to
those working in the
sector.
SNV Tanzania - Lake Zone
cutting of meat. Despite securing their product from
the same (poor standard) abattoir as local butchers,
these modern operations have been able to capture a
growing number of customers willing to pay
significantly higher meat prices – as much as double or
triple that of local butchers.
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The red meat Swammersion enabled stakeholders to fully endorse value
chain processes and losses occurring in Mwanza red meat service
delivery. Further, the multi-disciplinary nature of the Swammersion
clarified and identified key points of economic loss in the value chain.
Key stakeholder findings included:
• Major actors at each end of the value chain, namely farmers and
butchers, gain the least of the value chain’s profits
• Farmers possess almost no influence and rarely participate in formal
livestock markets
• Cattle traders and meat transporters gain the most of the chain’s
profits while contributing the least to value addition
• Informal red meat operators are securing profits great enough to
actively provide loans to their formal value chain counterparts
• More value on a cow is lost due to payments for a multitude of
formal and informal actors to deliver substandard slaughtering than
what can be contributed to poor handling at the abattoir
• Government presence is limited and unable to play an effective role
as a facilitator connecting the links in the value chain
The Swammersion process was regarded by participants as an effective
means of fostering professional connections while increasing joint
understanding and opportunity for action in red meat improvement
amongst red meat stakeholders.
Key stakeholder connections included:
• Teams in the field linking the Mwanza City Director to central
government plans for relocation of the Mwanza secondary market to
neighbouring Misungwi District. The coming change was previously
not detailed to the City Director and was communicated to prepare
for a potential shortage of red meat in Mwanza.
• Public Health officials in Mwanza now being aware of the existence
and role of the Mwanza City Butchers Association as an educating
organization for butcher owners and staff. Public Health has
indicated that MWACIBA can serve as an important partner for red
meat improvement.
• Mwanza butchers participating in the Swammersion requesting
greater linkages to rural slaughter slabs as managed by MCC.
Amongst all participating value chain stakeholders, agreement was had
as to the urgent need for cooperatively improving red meat in Mwanza
city. In bringing together a diverse spectrum of stakeholders, a practical
experience in knowledge sharing for improved red meat was achieved by
connecting the many links of the Mwanza Red Meat Value Chain.
ONE LINK AT A TIME
SNV Lake Zone Portfolio P.O. Box 11290 Mwanza - Tanzania Tel: +255.28.2500130
email: [email protected]
Web: www.snvworld.org
This is a briefing paper prepared by Josh Sebastian, SNV Young professional and
leading author of the report ‘In the Red’. For more information please contact Josh
Sebastian at [email protected] or Rinus van Klinken, Portfolio Coordinator at
Date of publicat ion: 20th October 2011
Checking out the informal meat trade
Tough questions for a health official
Improved slab under construction at Kayenze
Connecting the Mwanza Red Meat Value Chain