Ministry of Agriculture announced $100 million loss from illicit livestock trade just a few years ago, with promises back then of establishing trading centers, yet here we are again. No investor, let alone a struggling pastoralist, will risk their livelihood by participating in a centralized economy where the only guarantee is endless bureaucracy, and a diabolically high tax rate with no services in return...."The government will soon organise trading centres where pastoralists would receive competitive prices ... to discourage illicit trade which loses the country over $138 million annually," Assefa Mulugeta, head of the Agriculture Ministry's Livestock Department, told Reuters.
Ethiopia says illicit livestock trade costs $138 mln a year (Reuters) October 22, 2007
