There used to be a time when buying meat was a simple process.

All one needed to do was walk up to the butchery, point at the piece of meat hanging from a hook and ask for the specific amount they needed.

That still happens, but there has been a wave of change over the last few years that has forced businesses like Kamundia Butchery, which was established about 62 years ago, to change.

Change, that constant thing, was the reason the butchery located at City Market in the heart of Nairobi’s Central Business District was in virtual form at the first ever Meat Expo held in Nairobi in November 2021.

For Eric Maluki, the Marketing Director at Kamundia Butchery, the mission was simple.

“We are trying to tell people that they should be aware of how they get and handle their meat products,” said Mr. Maluki.

Even as the urban sprawl in Nairobi led to the development of “self-contained” shopping centres such as Buruburu, and malls away from the city centre such as The Hub and Garden City, the city centre-based butcheries have adjusted to their customers’ needs. Kamundia had begun to sell their meat online even before the pandemic, which with its restrictions has accelerated e-commerce and boosted the delivery business.

Today, their meat is a call or a WhatsApp message away and the variety is far much more than what they were selling 10 or 20 years ago. The meat types range from the traditional beef, chicken, mutton and goat to fish, seafood, rabbit, and meat that is already marinated and is ready for the grill, oven or smoker.

The meats may be collected via contactless delivery or pickup at their diff  locations in town. Besides working with individual farmers to provide the animals for slaughter, the third generation of the Kamundia Butchery has a ranch in Nanyuki where animals are grass-fed and reared to high grades of meat after achieving the set quality thresholds. This helps them achieve 100 per cent traceability from the farm to the consumer’s plate.

For their seafood section, they get their fish from both freshwater bodies and saltwater bodies. Examples include, Nile perch and tilapia, as well as tunas, kingfish prawns and crabs, respectively. This provides variety for their customers. They also import salmon from Norway which is then sold as fresh or smoked salmon.

Cyrus Mathenge of Kamundia notes that there has been a proliferation of butcheries over the years as people realized that the business is viable and has good profit margins.

“This has had a ripple eff   t on the economy as more people are turning towards farming in order to satisfy the demand in quality animals,” he says.

Butcheries like Kamundia are catering to a market that is constantly demanding more and whose tastes have diversified.

According to a study by Kenya Markets Trust, meat consumption has been on the rise over the last five years.

Based on the trends, apart from the high class and middle class who have been big consumers of meat, even the lower class where you would think meat is not consumed in large quantities, things have changed.

The most preferred meat type, according to Kenya Markets Trust (KMT) report is fish, followed by beef, chicken and goat. Pork is the least popular.

“Most meat retail outlets operate under minimal stocks for the day and add little or no value addition. The common practice is where walk-in customers ask for good meat and a unit of measure. Thus, it is said in Kenya, we do not have meat butchers but meat cutters,” says KMT in the report.

However, with the entry of modern supermarket butcheries and upgraded estate outlets, there is now differentiation of meat into specific cuts for different recipes.

June Gathoni, Director – Urban Fresh Ventures Ltd, says the country’s meat industry is one of the fastest-growing sub- sector in the agricultural sector, driven by rising human population, urbanisation and improving household incomes.

Urban Fresh Ventures Ltd deal with food production, agro-processing, marketing, and selling of fresh vegetables and other food products. Their products range includes Kenya Black Tea, grains, herbs and spices, meat products, dairy products, and fruits.

“We are sellers of different cuts of meat – red and white. For red we deal with beef, camel, and rabbit. For white, we deal with the whole range of poultry – from Kienyeji chicken, broilers, turkey, and ducks; sea food and freshwater fish, Camel meat is gaining popularity and we are selling it to both individuals and retailers, and we are present in online platforms like Uber Eats and Glovo,” said Ms. Gathoni.

Meat production accounts for over three-quarters of the output in the livestock sub-sector. It engages about 40 percent of households in Kenya, which keep livestock that is eventually slaughtered for meat.

Majority of consumers in the high-income segments consume chicken (96%) followed by fish (90%) then beef (79%) and goat meat (73%). Pork and mutton are consumed by minority of consumers in this segment as presented by only 35% and 23% respectively.

In the middle-income, chicken is eaten by majority of consumers (88%), beef (82%), fish (76%), and goat meat (69%). Pork and mutton are consumed by the minority of the consumers representing 24% and 17% respectively.

In the low-income households, majority of the consumers eat beef (84%), chicken (82%), fish (79%), and goat meat (70%). Pork and mutton are consumed by minority of the consumers as cited by 25% and 22% respectively.

Concerns about health are an important factor that influence the type of meat consumed by majority of consumers in the high-income (50%) and middle-income (40%) segments. Health concerns include drug residues, fear of lifestyle diseases, products not handled in hygiene ways as well as fear of consuming meat from game animals, uninspected stolen animals, and dead carcasses.

Price is also an important factor by majority of the households (42%) in the low-income segment. According to KMT report, at least 28% of the consumers in the middle-income segment also consider price when choosing the type of meat to consume. These results agree with findings by Liang et al. (2014) who reported that price and incomes are key factors affecting meat consumption.

There are several opportunities in the industry that can be used to enhance growth and competitiveness of the sector. These include value addition and, in the process, prolonging meat products shelf life.

There is also need for utilisation of cold chain along the supply chain. This will enhance quality by reducing bacterial loads on meat and reverse the increase in autoimmune diseases which are caused by increased consumption of hot chain meat.

This will increase consumer confidence in red meat and ultimately promote consumption of the same.

Studies have shown that there is a proportion of people who do not prefer going out to eat meat. This segment can be easily reached with well packaged red meat products that are home delivered through a model similar to the chicken delivery by the fast foods.

According to the KMT study, majority of people above 19 years of age have a preference for Nyama Choma. More value can be extracted from Nyama Choma outlets through creation of new value added products, development of products for home delivery services and also using the joints for dissemination of messages related to safe handling of meat.

Meat consumption can be increased by making available the value-added products that are mainly sold in the informal markets to the formal outlets especially the samosas and African sausage. This will involve supporting entrepreneurs to come up with unique products that address the concerns of the middle- and high-income segments. Similarly, more processors can come up with meat products that are appropriately packaged for low-income segments.