Pastoral Economy and Dairy Markets in Sahel: Heyday of the Clarified Butter Trade in Chad from 1930 to 1970

Abstract

In the beginning of the 20th century, the economic history of Chad was marked by the growth of the clarified butter export trade. A review of the literature and interviews of resource persons enabled the authors to understand better the heyday of Chad’s butter. This trade developed from large surplus amounts in the pastoral economy. As a preservable product, the clarified butter is a reserve with high economic value for local exchanges, pastoral deals, and family use. Like in other Sahelian countries, the presence of this traditional trade in Chad helped develop a subsector controlled by Lebano-Syrian traders, who transported the butter by truck to Middle-Eastern countries via Cairo. At the end of the 1930s, colonial trading enterprises redirected part of this trade to Europe, via Nigeria and Congo. France and Great Britain, facing an economic shortage because of the War, imported each year several thousand tons of Chadian butter. This export trade to Europe lasted up to the mid 1950s, but waned then because of the competition with European dairy surpluses. On the local market, the clarified butter also had to compete with various vegetable oils. In addition, the trade was affected by the Sahelian droughts which started in 1973. This episode in the history of Chad’s animal productions is nevertheless an original experience, as the region is today structurally an importer of dairy products. The article ends with some policy recommendations to increase market integration of pastoral systems in Africa.