Finding markets for forest products

Last month members of 13 forest communities (from two regions) in Ethiopia attended week long training courses run by Farm Africa.  The training was designed to help them identify which non-timber forest products they could most successfully use as the basis for sustainable businesses.
Participants were initially split into groups according to which products they thought they may be interested in selling.  The groups were then given training and guidance to find out about the potential markets for them.  This involved learning about market chains and what information they needed to gather to develop a market chain for their chosen product, as well as visits to other producers, local traders and markets to carry out research about prices and demand.
Each group then shared their findings with the other participants and together they were able to review the potential markets for cardamom, pepper and honey.  Using this information each participant could then decide which product or products they wanted to use to set up their businesses. As well as learning about the market chains for each product, group members learnt about the benefits of working as part of a co-operative and how to set one up.

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