Presented by Nadhem Mtimet, Derek Baker, James Audho, Edwin Oyieng and Julie Ojango at the International Agribusiness Marketing Conference (IAMC), Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, 22-23 October 2013

1. Nadhem Mtimet, Derek Baker, James Audho, Edwin Oyieng, Julie Ojango
International Agribusiness Marketing Conference
Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, 22-23 October 2013
Assessing sheep traders’ preferences in Kenya:
A best-worst experiment from Kajiado County

2. Outline
• Introduction
• Study area
• Data collection
• Methodology
• Results
• Conclusion

3. Introduction
• Small ruminants’ production and meat consumption widely studied
• Traders have been “neglected” by researcher
• Traders are the first source of market information for producers
• Understanding traders’ preferences is an important step in the
design and implementation of market-responsive interventions

4. Study area
• Kenya – Kajiado County
• This study follows a baseline survey of pastoralist Maasai
livestock producers
• Local and regional prominence of pastoralist sheep production
• 3 livestock markets: Kiserain, Bessil, and Mile 46

5. Study area

6. Data collection
• Face to face interviews with livestock traders
• 3 days (25-27April 2013): each day corresponded to a market day
• Traders’ previously contacted by the chairman of local trader
group in the case of Kiserian market
• For Bissil and Mile 46 markets traders’ have been contacted
during the market day
• 36 traders from each livestock market (108 total)

7. Data collection
• Questionnaire includes different sections
• Choice experiment – “Best-Worst” experiment - method
• 4 attributes:
• age
• sex
• breed
• price

8. Data collection
Selected sheep attributes and their corresponding levels
Attributes Levels
Sex Male
Female
Age 6 months
1 year
2 years
3 years
Breed Red Maasai
Dorper
Bleak Head Persian
Red Maasai x Dorper
Red Maasai x Bleak Head Persian
Dorper x Bleak Head Persian
Price 3,500 KSH
5,500 KSH
7,500 KSH
9,500 KSH

9. Data collection
Example of choice experiment card
Please indicate the most important attribute and the least important attribute when you
are buying a sheep (Tick only one case as most important and one case as least important)
Most important Sheep 1 Least important
Male X
1 year
X Dor x BHP
3,500 KSH
Would you buy this sheep? Yes No

10. Methodology
• Descriptive statistics analysis
• Best-worst method
• 1st step: assess attributes standardized scores
No. Most : number of times the attribute was chosen as most important
No. Least : number of times the attribute was chosen as least important
m : number of respondents
n : number of times the attribute was presented to the respondent
Standardized Most-Least Score=No. Most-No. Leastm.n

11. Results
Characteristics Definition Total Kiserian Bissil Mile 46
Gender Male 86% 94% 72% 92%
Female 14% 6% 28% 8%
Educational level Illiterate 33% 36% 44% 19%
Literate 24% 33% 17% 22%
Primary 31% 19% 36% 39%
Secondary 6% 8% 0% 8%
College 4% 3% 0% 8%
University 2% 0% 3% 3%
Age Mean* 37.2 37.6 39.5 34.5
(in year) (8.5) (10.1) (7.2) (7.0)
Experience Mean* 14.6 14.5 15.5 13.9
(in year) (8.5) (9.5) (7.4) (8.5)
*Standard deviation between brackets
Sampled traders’ characteristics

12. Proportion of traders ranking the importance of animal species in their activities
0%
20%
40%
60%
80%
100%
1st 2nd 3rd 1st 2nd 3rd 1st 2nd 3rd
Kiserian Bissil Mile 46
Poultry
Cattle
Goat
sheep
Results

13. Results
Function
Livestock market
Kiserian Bissil Mile 46
Trader 83% 92% 94%
Broker 44% 31% 11%
Middleman 11% 11% 11%
Processor 8% 11% 0%
Retailer 17% 0% 3%
Proportion of traders involved in value chain activities

14. Results
Proportion of traders ranking suppliers of livestock
0%
20%
40%
60%
80%
100%
1st 2nd 3rd 1st 2nd 3rd 1st 2nd 3rd
Kiserian Bissil Mile 46
Others
Brokers
Collectros/
Traders
Producers/
Farmers

15. Results
Proportion of traders ranking importance of sales outlets
0%
20%
40%
60%
80%
100%
1st 2nd 3rd 4th 1st 2nd 3rd 4th 1st 2nd 3rd 4th
Kiserian Bissil Mile 46
Producers
Traders
Retailers/B
utcheries
Processors
/Abattoirs

16. Results – Sheep attributes
Standardized attributes’ scores
Market Attributes No. Best No. Worst Score
Kiserian
Sex 40 155 -0.2662
Age 54 142 -0.2037
Breed 168 61 0.2477
Price 170 74 0.2222
Bissil
Sex 56 198 -0.3287
Age 83 92 -0.0208
Breed 195 52 0.3310
Price 98 90 0.0185
Mile 46
Sex 42 182 -0.3241
Age 57 146 -0.2060
Breed 198 53 0.3356
Price 135 51 0.1944

17. Results – Sheep attributes
“L-W” average scores of sheep attributes influencing traders’ choices
-0.4
-0.3
-0.2
-0.1
0
0.1
0.2
0.3
0.4
Sex Age Breed Price
Kiserian
Bissil
Mile 46

18. Results – Sheep attributes
“L-W” average scores of sheep attributes’ levels influencing traders’ choices
-0.4
-0.2
0
0.2
0.4
0.6
Kiserian
Bissil
Mile 46

19. Results – Sheep attributes
Importance of sheep attributes’ levels
Attributes
Relative importance
Kiserian Bissil Mile 46
Sex Male 9.5% 7.8% 4.8%
Female 14.3% 13.8% 8.6%
Age 6 Months 19.6% 44.2% 11.1%
1 Year 13.8% 13.5% 8.5%
2 Years 11.7% 18.1% 8.1%
3 Years 14.9% 14.1% 8.7%
Breed D 100.0% 100.0% 100.0%
RM 29.7% 49.5% 37.6%
BHP 31.3% 24.8% 15.9%
RM x D 59.4% 92.9% 62.6%
D x BHP 46.2% 38.6% 26.8%
RM x BHP 31.8% 29.5% 22.9%
Price 3500 KSH 48.0% 26.9% 23.7%
5500 KSH 34.9% 20.8% 22.7%
7500 KSH 33.1% 19.1% 27.3%
9500 KSH 34.6% 23.5% 22.4%

20. Conclusion
• Difference between livestock traders (although belonging to the
same region)
• Livestock traders play an important role within the value chain
(market information, price transmission, value addition, etc.)
• Traders are also involved in different socioeconomic activities
• For sheep traders: animal breed and price are the most important
attributes
• Animal sex and animal age are less important

21. Conclusion
• Traders’ preferences for Dorper or cross-breeds including Dorper
• Policy implications in terms of research development and
promotion on pure Dorper and cross Dorper x Red Maasai breeds
• Next: confirm these results by the use of more in-depth analysis
and choice models

22. Contact:
Nadhem Mtimet n.mtimet@cgiar.org
International Livestock Research Institute www.ilri.org
Thanks