Kulmiyey Party Leaders Hold Close Door Meeting With Somaliland Livestock Exporters

Hargeysa, May 5, 2007 – Kulmiye party leader, Ahmed Muhammad Sillanyo, along with high-ranking Kulmiyey party officials and MPs met on Tuesday, at his Hargeysa residence a large delegation of Somaliland livestock exporters and traders. The meeting was held behind closed doors and was over the issue of the Ministry of Livestock's controversial Somaliland livestock export agreement that it had made last month with the Saudi Arabian businessman Mr Al-Jabir, who is one of the biggest Saudi buyers/importers of Somali livestock.

Somaliland livestock exporters and traders requested the meeting with Kulmiye's top party officials to convey their disapproval of the government's export agreement with Mr Al-Jabir. The Saudi businessman has signed a five year fixed price contract with the Somaliland Ministry of Livestock to buy 2 million heads of Somaliland livestock per year at $36 per head at the dockside of Berbera `FOB/ex-freight cost'. In return, the Saudi businessman, Mr Al-Jabir has agreed to invest and build a $5 million livestock quarantine bay and disease control lab facilities at Berbera.

Somaliland livestock exporters and traders argue that this deal will ruin Somaliland's domestic and export livestock market. The livestock traders and exporters also pointed out that the very fact of fixing the export price market is in itself uncompetitive and goes against all free market supply and demand principles that are in the country's commercial laws.

After Tuesday's closed door meeting ended, Somaliland Times caught up with Ahmed Muhammad Sillanyo, the Kulmiyey party chairman and asked him to comment on what took place at the meeting. The party Chairman said, “a large delegation of Somaliland's livestock exporters and traders, numbering around 40 individuals had requested an official meeting with Kumiye party to discuss the contract agreement that the Ministry of Livestock signed with the Saudi businessman Al-Jabir.”

Ahmed Sillanyo stressed that many of Kulmiye's top officials and its members of parliament were present at the meeting, and that the traders made it very clear to the party that they are 100% against this deal and at the same time are very concerned about the repercussions that this deal will bring to the country's domestic livestock trade and its export market.

The Kulmiyey party leader explained that “Even in the heydays of Somalia's Socialism and Marxism in the 70's, never did the government, at the time, ever think of controlling, influencing or even regulating the price of our livestock, for the simple reason that 90% of the country's inhabitants depended on livestocks for their livelihoods. How can this government give a guarantee to an export market for the next 5 years at a fixed price? What kind of logic is this?”

For the benefit of our readers, SL Times on Thursday went to the local Hargeysa livestock market to check the market price rate per export market detsined goats/lambs. Prices were in the range of $37 to $48 per animal head, and this is not yet the season when demand is high.