Some aspects of the Kenyan beef economy

Over the past year we have been engaged in studying various aspects of the Kenyan beef economy. Our results are recorded in a 300 page report which will be lodged with the Institute for Development Studies, the Ministry of Economic Planning and Development and the Ministry of Agriculture. However, we felt that many of the issues which we investigated were of sufficient interest to justify the production of a 'popular' but greatly condensed version of our findings in the hope that it will serve as a useful background for discussion purposes. For those who may not be aware of the institutional and structural aspects of the beef market in Kenya, this is a good opportunity to briefly describe them. In practice there are three markets which overlap to a greater or lesser degree:the urban market comprising Nairobi, Mombasa, Thika and Nakuru which is dominated by the Kenya Meat Commission (KMC), the other urban and more populous rural areas in which an organised market may be said to exist, and the rural subsistance sector where it does not. We have tended to concentrate on the first of these markets because information on it is more readily available and KMC, as an agent of government policy on the beef industry, plays an important role in the development of the industry and justifies study.