Abstract

Nigussie A, Alemu D and Bogale A

This study has attempted to identify determinants of sheep price per kilogram live weight using a loglinear regression model. The estimated model explains about 48% of the variation in market prices of sheep. Price per kilogram live weight increases with animal characteristics such as age, live weight and grade. Type of sellers, buyers’ purposes, and buyer type are also important variables in affecting prices. Pastorals, agro-pastorals, and farmers tend to sell their animals at price discounts as compared to trader sellers. Sellers suffer from price discounts in selling to buyers with business purposes in comparison to selling to ultimate consumers. Price per kilogram live weight increases with the time of transaction suggesting that sellers tend to obtain higher prices by selling at later hours of a market day. The policy implications of these empirical results are that efforts to benefit producers and/or sellers need to pay attention to animal characteristics, seller types, and buyers’ purposes. It is vitally essential to train keepers on the above issues. Provision of reliable market (price) information to market participants, and investment in different sheep marketing facilities (like weighing scale), and services need to be given due attention in order to avoid unrewarding sheep-pricing practices.