Assessing the Economic Potential of Nutrient-Dense Foods Supply Chain in Ethiopia

Abstract

The prevalence of child malnutrition in Africa is alarming. Currently, almost six million children under age five are suffering from this problem in Ethiopia. Reducing child malnutrition requires a multi-pronged approach that includes nutritious foods, improved hygiene, and breastfeeding. Poverty and food insecurity have severely constrained the access to nutritious diets that have high energy, protein, and other micronutrient content. Diets based mainly on plant sources may not meet nutritional requirements and need to be improved, either through adding protein from animal sources such as milk powder or through supplemental nutrition products. One option is the formulation of ready-to-use foods (RUFs), which have been a tool to treat malnutrition and undernutrition. RUF is a nutrient-dense food that contains all the essential nutrients for growth and development that can also serve as a food supplement to pregnant women and the elderly who lack essential food nutrients in their diets. The food is packaged conveniently and does not require cooking or additional preparation.

Increasing access to these foods has become a challenge to producers and buyers. Cost remains one of the main barriers to greater access, further complicated by constrained funding for procuring the products and the variability of prices of some ingredients, such as peanuts. It is, therefore, crucial to have other versions of RUTF/RUSF made from other ingredients (i.e. chickpeas, barley) that can be produced locally and meet the dietary needs of a target population.

Therefore, the focus of the study is to identify the supply chain benefits of alternative nutrient-dense foods in the ready-to-use food supply chain. Data were collected through video interviews with producers and buyers of RUFs in the supply chain. Participants were asked open-ended questions and the responses were transcribed verbatim and analyzed. Patterns and relationships that emerge from the data were coded and analyzed using NVivo 12 plus software.

The analysis of interview data reveals key challenges such as logistics, longer lead times, higher procurement costs, dislike of products by some beneficiaries and shortage of critical ingredients for formulation within the RUTF/RUSF supply chain.

Despite these issues, the interviews with the stakeholders strongly indicated that alternative recipes, if developed properly, could enhance production volumes by augmenting existing products as well as increasing product accessibility by the intended beneficiaries. The insights from the interviews reveal that encouraging the development of alternative products from local ingredients would reduce some problems encountered during production and procurement, such as the shortage of critical ingredients, long lead times, and high prices of the RUTF/RUSF in the market as there are several options available to the buyers.