Abstract:
Goats are important to the socioeconomic wellbeing of the pastoralists in Moyale district in terms of nutrition, income and intangible benefits. However, the development of the subsector faces challenges such as information about market actors, what determines goat market participation and supply, information about market margin and outlet preference. Therefore, this study was aimed to analyze goat market chain in Moyale district. Both primary and secondary data were used for the study. Primary data were collected from randomly selected sample of 196 goat producers and 32 goat traders. The data was analyzed using both descriptive and econometric methods. The result indicated that the major goat market actors in the district being goat producers, cooperatives, collectors, small-scale traders, large-scale traders, hotels and restaurants, and consumers. In the structure-conduct-performance analysis, four firms concentration ratio (CR4) of goat traders in the district market was 44.72 indicating weak oligopolistic market. Lack of capital is reported as the main barrier to entry particularly for large-scale traders and collectors. Negotiation is the main price setting strategy and the cash on hand is the mode of payment traders are mainly using in the district. Producers’ share of the consumers’ price was highest when they directly sell to consumers and lowest when they sell to collectors. Heckman 1st stage result showed that family size, credit use and lagged price positively and significantly affected households’ goat market participation decision while it is negatively affected by distance to market and income from non-goat. Again the 2nd stage result indicated that sex, number of goat owned and credit use positively and significantly affected number of goat supplied to the market. While distance to market and number of other livestock owned negatively and significantly affected number of goat supplied to the market. Multivariate probit model result show that distance to market and selling price significantly affected the entire outlets. Distance to market negatively and significantly affected large scale traders, small-scale traders and consumer market outlets, while it affected cooperatives and collectors market outlets positively and significantly. Selling price of goat positively and significantly affected the large-scale traders, small-scale traders and ultimate consumers’ market outlets, while it affected the choice of cooperatives and collectors market outlets negatively and significantly. The study recommends the need to enhance market competitiveness, market infrastructures, improve the capacity of productive labor, promote credit institutions, and provision of awareness creation training towards goat trading business.