Farming, livestock and fishing
Berbera's livestock quarantine companies
Most live sheep, goats, camels and cattle exported from Somaliland to Saudi Arabia pass through private quarantine stations at Berbera, where they are tagged, vaccinated and tested before shipping. In 2011 two Saudi-run stations at Berbera could hold 2 to 2.5 million animals between them. National Geographic reported in 2014 that one, the Saudi Emirate Veterinary Quarantine Management Company, could hold 300,000 at a time. In February 2025 Somaliland revoked the licence of one of its three quarantine centres, and a new one, SILQC, opened in 2025.
The short version
Live animals make up about 80% of Somalia's export earnings in normal years, and Saudi Arabia is the main buyer (Hiiraan Online, January 2025). Before animals can be shipped they spend time in a quarantine station, where they are ear-tagged, vaccinated against Rift Valley fever and blood-tested for brucellosis; animals that test positive are kept back (National Geographic, 16 June 2014). At Berbera these stations are run by private companies, several of them owned by Saudi livestock importers.
The stations
In April 2011 The Cattle Site reported that Saudi livestock importers ran one quarantine station at Djibouti, two at Berbera and one at Bosaso. The two Berbera stations could hold 2 to 2.5 million animals between them, and a third, costing $2 million, was being built by a Saudi livestock trader (The Cattle Site, 4 April 2011). Saudi Arabia had eased an eleven-year ban on Somaliland livestock in October 2009 and said in 2011 it would double imports from the Horn of Africa (same source).
National Geographic's 2014 photo report from Berbera named the Saudi Emirate Veterinary Quarantine Management Company, which could hold 300,000 animals at a time, and the Berbera National Health Quarantine, which could hold 120,000. It said Somaliland shipped about 1.3 million sheep and goats in the weeks before the Hajj, and quoted an FAO estimate that $250 million worth of animals left Berbera and Bosaso in the seven weeks before it. One ship it photographed, bound for Jeddah, could carry almost 85,000 animals (National Geographic, 2014).
The 2025 licence dispute
In January 2025 traders and nearly 100 members of Somalia's federal parliament objected to reports that the federal government had given one foreign businessman sole rights to export livestock to Saudi Arabia; Somaliland traders said exports from Berbera stopped for two weeks and about 80,000 animals were left waiting at the port (Hiiraan Online, January 2025). In February 2025 Somaliland's livestock minister said the government had revoked the licence of the Berbera inspection centre run by the same businessman, one of three quarantine centres in Somaliland, because he had signed the deal with the federal government (Hiiraan Online, February 2025).
SILQC
The Saudi International Livestock Quarantine Center (SILQC) says it was founded in 2025, covers 2 square kilometres at Berbera, and is the largest quarantine site in Somaliland. It describes itself as privately built and regulated by Somaliland's Ministry of Livestock and Rural Development (SILQC).
Related
Sources
- Hiiraan Online, January 2025 · hiiraan.com
- National Geographic, 16 June 2014 · nationalgeographic.com
- The Cattle Site, 4 April 2011 · thecattlesite.com
- Hiiraan Online, February 2025 · hiiraan.com
- SILQC · saliqc.com
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Where this matters
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- DjiboutiAbout 13,900 refugees from Somalia live in Djibouti (Aug 2026): numbers since 1990, Ali Addeh, Holl-Holl, the 2017 refugee law, Arta 2000 and 2025 returns.
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