An abattoir facility established near the town of Ziway remains shuttered after well over a year, besieged by a host of problems from insecurity in the area and insufficient livestock supply to contraband trade of cattle and higher local prices for meat.

Frigorifico Boran Foods Plc, a subsidiary of the India-based Allana Group, claims to have invested 60-million dollars, erecting an abattoir which lies on 72ht of land in Adami Tullu, 163Km southeast of Addis Abeba. The construction of the processing plant, which involved dozens of local and foreign contractors in various lines of work, took more than two and a half years to complete. In full capacity, it can slaughter and process over 3,000 heads of cattle and twice the number of sheep and goats daily, mainly earmarked for export to Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates (UAE).

The company's management also cites a shortage in skilled labour as to why it had never operated in full capacity.

The company began processing 300tn of meat a month in 2018 before shutting down early last year due to a lack of livestock supply and security concerns stemming from the political instability in the region. The closure meant that close to 300 people lost their jobs, and the plant currently employs only a few dozen security and maintenance workers. Live animals from close to two dozen cooperatives that breed livestock in Adami Tullu, Borena, Bale and nearby lowland areas were thought to be major sources of supplies. The illicit cattle trade en route to Kenya, Somalia and Somaliland brings a few to the plant, according to Kelifa Hussien, director of operations at Frigorifico Boran Foods Plc.

"The company could not keep up with the lucrative illegal trade, which offers high incentives with a kilo of goat meat going for around 30 dollars," Kelifa told Fortune.

Ethiopian traders have sold about 35,280 heads of cattle to their counterparts in Somalia in the first three months of 2021, exhibiting a six percent quarterly growth stemming from a surge in re-exporting the same products by traders in Somalia to the Middle Eastern countries, disclosed the East African Crossborder Trade Bulletin.