By Lenah Bosibori
An average Kenyan consumes 15 kilos of meat annually, a new study released on Thursday has revealed.
According to Kenya Markets Trust (KMT) study on Meat End-Market Trends in Kenya, the total volume of meat consumed is highest amongst the low-income earners due to their numbers.
“Middle income is expanding voicing concerns to be given quality assurance meat,” said Kamau Kuria CEO KMT.
According to the findings, meat that is frozen during the night and removed during the day is more dangerous to consumers.
“We have the cold chain but using it wrongly, we need to educate the consumers,” added Kuria.
The study cites that 34 per cent of Kenyans are not aware of the benefits of the cold chain that is used for meat preservation.
The study was conducted countrywide between July and November 2018, further indicates that the country also has a meat deficiency of 300,000 metric tonnes, a shortage that makes it hard to satisfy the Kenyan meat demands.
“We are not producing for the market, we have not been able to meet the demand, cartels and our production system make our meat to be very expensive the reason we don’t meet our demands,” added Kuria.
With regards to the type of meat consumed, there has been a significant change in the quantities of beef consumed in the market. While 67 per cent of Kenyans preferred to eat red meat in a similar 2009 study, today, less than a quarter of the respondents preferred to eat red meat over white meat.
Ironically, consumers in the low-income segment eat more fish as compared to red meat. This is triggered by the ability to buy cheap portions and products such as omena and fish remains which can be stretched to feed more people than the smallest units of red meat.
This decline in red meat consumption can generally be attributed to the association of red meat with the high incidences of lifestyle diseases. However, consumers are not getting full information on this association which is linked to post-slaughter handling of meat, proper use of the cold chain, consumption of meat immediately after slaughter, among others.
The study further denotes that meat buyers are keen on their health and often factor issues like drug residues, fear of lifestyle diseases, unhygienic handling of meat, meat from game animals, uninspected stolen animals and dead carcasses are major considerations on the type of meat they take home from the butcher.
The study highlights that most of the decision making on the kind of meat to purchase is left to house managers and the female staff in the households. There is also a great disconnect between the decision makers, in this case the household managers, on the quality of meat, where to buy and how much to spend and the actual buyers of the meat.
This study also indicates that consumers also prefer hot chain meat as compared to cold chain meat with many of the consumers preferring estate butcheries as compared to shopping for meat in the malls and supermarkets.
Butchers cited their preference for animals slaughtered from the Maasai ecosystem, ranches, Northern Tanzania, Uganda, and feedlots as these serve the needs of the middle-income segment and the nyama choma market.
Hospitals and academic institutions prefer lean animals which are largely sourced from all other pastoralist’s markets in the country.
There is limited awareness among majority of consumers especially in the middle- and low-income segments on differentiated products like aged meat, ranch meat, pure grass -fed meat and special meat cuts hence consumers do not take these into consideration when purchasing meat.
The study cites an opportunity for nyama choma operators and fast-food restaurants to package roast meat for home delivery targeting high- and middle-income earners who are unable to go out for some reasons.
There is hence a knowledge gap regarding the benefits of cold chain beyond preservation. This necessitates consumer education to change these perceptions and enhance their level of understanding of meat quality.
