By Goth Mohamed Goth
A ship carrying more than 1283 herds of camel has docked yesterday at Berbera port after being sent back by the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, the livestock heard is said to belong to the Saudi tycoon Suleyman Al Jaabiri and local businessmen this been the second such ship to be send back in the last few weeks.
The ship known as MV Amin is said to have departed from the country’s main port of Berbera on the 26th of March last month destined for the kingdom of Saudi Arabia this after another ship carrying livestock docked in the port of Berbera last Saturday.
550 herd of camel on board the ship belonged to Saudi born livestock magnate Sulymain Al AJaabiri while the rest belonged to Somaliland businessmen; the reason which prompted the Saudi authorities to turn away the ship came about after they found some animals were infected by _ disease.
The business community in Somaliland has shown concern regarding the decision by Saudi Arabia to send back two ships in such a short time on the pretext that Saudi regulations prevents the clearance of contaminated livestock is viewed with suspicion and also crippling not to mention the growing stiff competition from other stakeholders in the region vying for the Saudi market.
Efforts to reach the Minister of livestock Hon Dr. Abdi Aw Dahir was unavailable to answerour question on what caused a second ship to be sent back in just three weeks in the proved futile . It’s a high time that the government of Somaliland realized the ramifications of such actions by the Saudis and must act quickly to resolve any technical or procedural obstacles related to health or any other related problems to avoid such incidence in the future.
Livestock, the largest value chain in Somaliland, is one of the program’s main focuses. Livestock production accounts for 60-65% of the country’s gross domestic product (GDP). Among pastoralists, especially those classified as poor, 50-80% of income is derived from sale of livestock and 25-30% of food comes from livestock products.
Moreover, livestock trading is a lucrative business which generates significant profits for not only the pastoralists and for the traders, while the government obtains the most tax revenues out of this trade.
What did you expect?
During the term of Abdul Qasim Salad 2000-2004, the current prime minister of Muuqdisho federation Abid wally Ahmed was the architect behind the Livestock ban in Somaliland and at the same time 200% increase in the live stock export from Bossasso, Muuqdisho and Djibouti.
It was a strategy to strangle the Somaliland-Republic economy, Obviously it failed because Somaliland-Republic only got stronger… However that was short lived since Somaliland resumed trade with the Saudis when they were ready forgetting the primary reasons of the ban in the first place.
We find ourselves at the mercy of the decision made by the worlds biggest cowards, the same men that are forcing Wahabism on our shores, the same people that fund Al-Shabab.
Let us blame ourselves for remaining reliant on the most inept people on earth…
Somaliland-Republic needs to begin to move away from Live-stock dependence it is a wakeup call… we can begin to reverse desertification by reducing the law-mowing sheep and goats that are chewing the roots of progress.
We do not make enough from live-stock exports to warrant any investment of time or effort to hold on to this barbaric low yield sector.
… I hope the Saudis put in place a permanent Ban…
Better thy Jews then Arabs i say, we share religion with Arabs and that is all,nothing else.
Juhuds are not interested in SL nor are Arabs. Frankly no one cares because it has nothing to offer of value.
Our government should be trying to find other places where we can sell our livestock and also make sure that the animals are healthy before they leave and during their travels.
But lets not play games the Arabs are not for Somaliland, they would rather see Somalia. So we should use their services are little as possible if at all. Are there no buyers in Africa and Asia? or have we only been using the arabs bc we are used to them. I am sure there are other markets.
Enough of this blue balling already, make sure the animals are safe and healthy and find other buys that way our people dont suffer and neither does our economy
Just bc you share a religion, a nationality, a language or even a mother and father does not mean that those people have your best interest at heart. Wake up, dont allow them to fleece you jsl, if you allow anyone to do anything to you then you are no better than those sheep off to slaughter at least they have a quicker death you on the other hand are a living corpse.
Buuxiye is correct the Saudi ban was political. It was designed to smother Somaliland to death and it almost succeeded. Successive Somalia governments encouraged the Saudis to keep the ban in place because Somalia is not as dependent on livestock trade for its survival as we are.
We need to do something here. Long-term strategy must be to diversify our economy. In the medium term we must find other markets for our livestock. Meat processing camel meat in particular and putting it in huge 2 kilo cans aimed at the african armed forces market should be one option for immediate consideration.
Opening Camel Burger joints with Lahoh instead of buns should be opened and then hopefully expanded to the Gulf. How about Dhab faming? Dhab (monitor Lizards) are a delicay in the Gulf. We have millions of lizards. Each can fetch $500 in Oman and Dubai. Where is our sense of enterprise?
Lastly we can become Shias and move away this Saudi control once and for all. Iran will buy all our sheep and goats. That'll put the heeppy cheeppies into Riyadh!
DLs
True. By contrast Somalia has a great deal to offer : piracy, famines, civil wars, pestilence, Al-Shabab, charcoaling and a full supermarket array of other social and political malaises. And the world is giving it full undiluted attention.
Maybe we should get some of that for ourselves and then the world will sure be impressed. What do you think DL?
He guys do you know any creative investor who will try my Camel Burger business idea? The theme is simple: 90% of all the products should be Somaliland. So you get a strong mincing machine, make 2 pounder camel burger mashed with onions, garlic, peppers, tamarind and then fry them. You could blanch them first to see if they soften the meat. The bun is made of Lahoh wholly made from Elmi Jama garow. But you make the Lahoh thicker like crumpets in the West. All is washed down with cooled fruit juices or traditional coke. You can also have four pounders and mega burgers for sharing sliced like Pizza.
Then you advertise like mad. The whole theme and turn it into chain. has anyone tried this?