Addis Ababa, — Ethiopia has been losing from 250 to 300 million USD every year through its eastern border due to the informal trade of live animals, a research revealed.

Presenting a research paper to a panel discussion, Ethiopian Agricultural Research Institute Senior Researcher, Rahima Musema, said the share of informal trade of live animals through the its eastern border stands at about 86 percent.

Challenges such as limited technical support, lack of quality service provision, absence of modern inspections, and lack of infrastructure at checkpoints have contributed to the rampant informal trade in the north western, western and southern borders as well, she added.

According to her, "the main pushing factors for informal trade are lack of provision of services, understanding problems, lack of market information and lack of quarantine that fulfill the demand of importing countries."

The government needs to therefore reduce informal trade through policy intervention in a way that does not affect the border community.

Somalia, Djibouti, Kenya and Sudan are the main destination of the Ethiopia's informal trade for live animals and other agricultural products such as sesame, garlic, lentils, fava bean, red pepper and teff, among others.

Lead Researcher at Ethiopian Policy Study Institute, Desalegn Begna said on his part that the informal trade of live animals has been highly affecting the earning of foreign exchange of the country.

It has also contributed to inflation of daily products in the country and brought negative impact on the national economy.

"In order to control this, the government has carried out research and formulated livestock trade policy through the coordination of Ministry of Trade and Regional Integration and submitted it to the Council of Ministers for approval."

Ethiopia had the largest livestock population in Africa, with 65 million cattle, 40 million sheep, 51 million goats, 8 million camels, and 49 million chickens in 2020, according to the Central Statistics Agency.