The interface of market access and SPS requirements: Lessons from recent ILRI research in Africa

ILRI research shows that African countries’ export trade in live and processed animals is mainly constrained by costs of production and (scale-dependent) transactions between producer and foreign consumer. The impact of animal disease is felt more in terms of low productivity and high mortality than through costs of SPS compliance. ILRI’s in-depth whole-chain studies identified cost items and market actor behaviors that contribute to poor export performance. Costly and ineffective drug delivery systems in Somalia, high feed costs in Ethiopia, high transport costs in East Africa, and high marketing costs and lack of information in West Africa, were common culprits.