The milk processing: Status, challenges and opportunities in ethiopia

Livestock production in Ethiopia contributes about 16.5% of the national Gross Domestic Product (GDP), 35.6% of the agricultural GDP, 15% of export earnings, and 30% of agricultural employment. The performance of livestock product marketing was poor in the last decade, despite some improvement in recent years, especially in terms of aggressive policy and strategy on export of livestock and livestock products, indicating that the sector is still underexploited. There is need to promote the market-oriented production of milk export. Knowing the common challenges and opportunities are very much important in designing smart livestock and livestock product marketing systems in the country. The common milk processing products market constraints in Ethiopia include lack of clear milk marketing system, factors of culture and religion, inaccessibility of market and lack of transport, seasonal based demand, lack of effective extension service to use newer technologies and practices, lack of market information, lack of holistic intervention and localized markets. Despite these challenges, there are some golden opportunities that increase the milk demand and to some extent increase milk consumption trend. Hence, the need to review this work was to access literatures available regarding milk processing, status, challenges and opportunities in Ethiopia.