Published: Monday 13 June, 2022

Ndungu S. Nyokabi, Johanna F. Lindahl, Lisette T. Phelan, Stefan Berg, Gizachew Gemechu, Adane Mihret, James L. N. Wood and Henrietta L. Moore.

Although Ethiopia is holding one of the largest dairy cattle herds in the world, the per capita consumption of dairy products is low. Moreover, the dairy marketing system in the country from where the consumers obtain dairy products is dominated by the informal market that supplies raw milk which can be a risk factor for zoonotic disease transmission. Using primary data collected from 384 sample households of Addis Ababa city, determinants of dairy products purchase decision was investigated. Descriptive statistics and multivariate probit (MVP) model were used to analyse the data. The results showed that raw milk, pasteurized milk, powdered milk, cottage butter, cottage cheese, factory cheese, cottage yoghurt and factory yoghurt were purchased by 46%, 73%, 12%, 94%, 64%, 9%, 11% and 26% of the sampled households, respectively. The MVP model results indicated the interdependence of decisions to purchase different dairy products. The result of the model further revealed that religion, age and education of household head, family size, presence of children in household, and consumption value variables such as taste, price, social values (influence of friends and families), emotional values (the perception that dairy products offer pleasure and good feeling), conditional value (availability), and epistemic value (habit of trying new products) had a significant impact on dairy product purchase decision of the respondents. Therefore, addressing demographic, socioeconomic and consumption value variables, and acknowledging the interdependence of decisions consumers make while purchasing multiple dairy products, would all be important factors to consider when designing policies to improve the consumers" nutritious food consumption and zoonotic diseases control.

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