EPPPA Message of the Manager

Dear Members and Visitors:

Welcome to the Ethiopian Poultry Producers and Processors Association Website which is developed with aspiration to connect stakeholders, partners, higher learning institutions, researchers, international organizations and all other interested groups who have constructive ideas and may wish to share their knowledge, experience and contribute in their capacity for the smooth transformation of the poultry production and processing throughout the country.

As we all agree, there are ample evidences to exhibit that Ethiopia is a country with huge livestock potential in the continent and at global level. The main reasons for such blessing massive resource include its ecological diversity which ranges from the deserts along the eastern border to the tropical forests in the south to extensive Afro-mountain in the northern and southwestern parts. Despite this potential, the sector was lingering behind due to poor economic base, low productivity of the indigenous breeds, high disease prevalence, weak infrastructure, low levels of technological application and poorly informed population nevertheless; situations are changing now through enhanced extension system focused on capacity building and input supply.

Likewise, the poultry production used to be more of traditional until very recent time but efforts are underway to enhance the production and processing through the introduction of improved breeds and technologies. The poultry production in Ethiopia can be characterized into three major production systems based on some selected parameters such as breed, flock size, housing, feed, health, technology in use, and on the bio-security level. These are:

1) Village or backyard poultry production system

2) Small scale poultry production system

3) Commercial poultry production system

The poultry production and processing is an area which creates wide job opportunity for committed entrepreneurs but requires very strict management and handling procedure in order to safeguard the flock from undesirable happenings and this requires the involvement of skilled personnel’s with technical and management capability.  Following the policy shift undertaken by the government, it is probably fair to forecast that the poultry subsector in Ethiopia may have a bright future in the years to come. This is because the government has already realized the importance of livestock in general and poultry in particular to support the country’s economy through the supply of massive and high quality product to domestic and international market.

To this end, appropriate measures are already taken by the government and these include:

  • The recognition of the Livestock Master Plan Study which gives great emphasis on the role of the private sector is also another crucial step to promote the poultry sub sector
  • The emphasis given for the Livestock Sector in the Second Growth and Transformation Plan (GTP ll) where the private sector is highly encouraged by the government to invest

Nonetheless, the poultry sub sector and its value chain actors have quite enormous problems which needs an extensive policy dialogue that would be resolved through time having this in mind, it is important to underscore that few visionary entrepreneurs involved in the business agreed to form an association with the objective to have strong representation to enhance policy environment, to deliver efficient wide range services to members through which production and productivity will be improved in the poultry sub-sector and to serve as a bridge between the government and members.

The Ethiopian Poultry Producers (EPPA) is a membership based sector association established on March 20, 2011 by 10 volunteer Ethiopian Poultry Producers. The association was established in accordance with the 1952 commercial code of Ethiopia and a sectoral association establishment proclamation no 341/2003. Following the major steps undertaken by the government to promote the sector, it appeared convincing to amalgamate the poultry processors within the Poultry Producers Association as one organizational entity. Based on this, upon the decision of the General Assembly the Ethiopian Poultry Producers Association (EPPA) renamed to the Ethiopian Poultry Producers and Processors Association (EPPPA) as of October 2015.  To operate in a fully fledged manner in satisfying its members and consumers interest, EPPPA needs an enormous support from those who are interested to see the development of the subsector.

Therefore, I strongly believe that EPPPA created this website timely when the livestock sector in general and the poultry subsector in particular entered to the transformation phase where interactions, constructive inputs in terms of ideas and support through developing saleable project documents to strengthen the Association and the Value Chain Actors would be critically important to enhance production and productivity. With this highlight, I would like to invite all interested groups to efficiently use our website for the desired purpose.

Finally, I would like to assure you that the management and the Board of Directors of EPPPA are highly inspired to work in close collaboration with all local and international community’s because together we can make a difference for the betterment of the subsector..

Sincerely,

Misgina Fitsumbirhan  (DVM, MScSE)

EPPPA  General Manager