Hey crew, here’s to another week of cutting through the noise and focusing on what actually moves financial minds forward.

This week’s Digest has accidentally become cow-themed:

🥩 Raising Steaks: The Economics of ቁርጥ

🧀 Bank to Cow: Your Finest Cheese Will Do

In Ethiopia, beef is causing a cost-of-living crisis. In Italy, cheese is securing bank loans.

Here’s to the 131st weekly edition

Let’s dive in.

The only martial art Ethiopians know is BeefWondo: black belts at slicing through raw meat, and making it disappear.

We probably have more ቁርጥ ቤት per capita than doctors, an entire neighborhood named ፍየል ቤት, but food bloggers flood our social media with these restaurants like they’re hidden gems.

It is quite ironic given Ethiopia has one of the largest livestock populations anywhere in the world, but some of the lowest quality.

The problem is that each animal produces relatively little meat compared to global averages and often takes longer and more feed to reach market weight.

Nevertheless, these days a ቁርጥ ቤት is where Ethiopians go to discuss the cost-of-living crisis…while ordering it for 6,000 Birr per kilogram at some premium establishments.

A social-media campaign recently urged Addis residents to avoid expensive butcheries, and some are now boycotting it until further notice.

The frustration is understandable, obviously.

So let’s get into the meat of things 😉.

Ethiopia’s official statistics show that average meat prices rose 22% in the year to September, considerably faster than the overall inflation rate of 14.9%.

In response, city officials summoned butcher associations and demanded more affordable prices.

The Addis Ababa Butcheries Association subsequently announced a 500-birr reduction, which basically covers your one-way Ride fare to your ደምበኛ.

Meat for cooking and frying would be available for 2,500 birr, provided customers bought it before 10 a.m.

Beef now has happy hour.

The boycott focuses on the butcher because that is where consumers encounter the price.

The price, unfortunately, begins much earlier.

Butchers blame expensive cattle, transport, rent, salaries and the numerous people in between the farmer and Addis Ababa.

Then there is the cow’s lunch.

Animal feed is one of the largest costs in commercial livestock production. Ethiopian research generally places it at around 60 to 70% of production costs. A Ministry of Agriculture adviser has put it as high as 70 to 75% for poultry and livestock businesses.

This makes the latest news especially well timed.

According to Reporter, the Ministry of Agriculture is asking for a tax imposed on processed animal feed and related inputs to be removed.

Apparently, the tax had previously been removed.

Then it was imposed again.

The policy has completed a full round trip.

It seems officials are trying to reduce the price of meat at the butcher while taxing one of the largest expenses required to produce it.

This is like making taxis cheaper by increasing the price of fuel and asking drivers to be reasonable.

The point is imposing price ceilings alone cannot make feed, transport or cattle cheaper.

If those underlying costs remain, the butcher must eventually reduce quality, reduce supply or develop a creative interpretation of one kilogram.

There is a more useful opportunity hiding inside the argument, for those of you with deep pockets looking for a business plan.

Ethiopia does not simply need cheaper meat. It needs more productive animals and a much stronger feed industry.

The FAO’s 2026 Ethiopia investment plan identifies limited access to affordable, high-quality feed as one of the livestock sector’s biggest constraints.

Its proposed animal-feed investment program would require $248.2 million to expand manufactured cattle and poultry feed. The program projects a 20.8% internal rate of return, nearly 7,000 direct jobs and benefits for 2.6 million livestock owners.

Those are projections, not cattle already chewing.

But they potentially reveal where the more interesting business opportunity sits.

Ethiopia’s meat problem could support feed factories, storage businesses, testing laboratories and more efficient distribution networks.

Better data on feed availability, animal weight and production costs could also make the industry considerably less dependent on estimates and emergency meetings.

It turns out the person who solves Ethiopia’s beef problem may never own a butchery.

They may simply become very good at supplying them.

Or, more interestingly, they may persuade us to diversify our protein portfolio. The government just started offering duty-free equipment imports and tax holidays to attract investment into fish farming.

Add poultry, and the opportunity may be less about finding cheaper beef than finally giving it some competition.

If poultry farming interests you as a business, attend the EthioPex expo this week. The cow has dominated Ethiopia’s portfolio long enough.

At Credem Banca, the sight of a big wheel of Parmigiano-Reggiano cheese being rolled in on a wheel barrow is probably just a typical Tuesday afternoon.

For context, Credem is a bank in Northern Italy with total assets of €68.37B as of June 30, 2026.

So why is cheese being shown off inside the branches of a financial institution then?

Well, you might think that Credem employees are big cheese addicts and they want everyone to know but that’s not the case.

The reason is not as peculiar but certainly interesting: the cheese belongs to customers and Credem is taking custody of it in a purely transactional sense.

Farmers in the Emilia Romagna region of Italy have relied on Credem to store and hold their cheese as collateral since 1953.

That’s right, not cars, not houses but cheese...

The madness starts to make sense when you understand what cheese means for the locals.

Parmigiano, a staple commodity proudly prepared by generational Italian artisans, gets better with age (kinda like the writer of this article😏…sorry getting side tracked here).

With age comes quality and with a 18, 24, 30 or 36 month duration, the cheese achieves different levels of qualities.

Once the farmer is done preparing its masterpiece, he/she can’t sell it right away.

So it goes to someone like Credem, asks them to hold it for them and while they’re there, why not ask for a little loan?

While the current cheese matures, the cheese making can’t stop.

But without any sales, there is no money.

The cheese collateral bridges that gap and the farmer can keep creating its delicious dairy magic.

Now, the bank has much more money making ways but the Parmigiano example exemplifies how finance can be used to solve an age old (no pun intended) problem.

Couple things to point out here:

Local communities are wary of big banker suits trying to sell them a product that they can’t see.

Credem found a way to break that barrier by providing a service and still making money while staying close to the values that align with the community.

The collateral conundrum is close to home: Ethiopia has a trust issue when it comes to lending money.

So what if we take the Credem lesson and turn an everyday commodity into collateral?

How about a barrel of ማር? A giant bucket of Ethiopian ቅቤ? Or the very sought after ሻኛ in an oversized Ziploc?

Overly exaggerated examples aside, Ethiopia should redefine the collateral concept.

Look at what people have, look at the market for it. Is it storable? Can it be appraised? Does the value increase or decrease over time?

Something for our MFIs and banks to think about…