24 Aug 2015

Trade and industry assistant minister, Mr Sadique Kebonang says the Botswana Meat Commission (BMC) is on the right track and its path to recovery is evident. 

Mr Kebonang said this, after a meeting with the BMC executive and touring of the commission’s plant in Lobatse recently. 

He said he was impressed by the operations and production level at the Botswana Meat Commission.

He said government took the right decision to inject more funds into the commission’s coffers as a way of resuscitating it from its debts.

The resuscitation of the commission, he said meant a lot to the country’s economy, farmers and the men on the streets who benefit in one way or the other from the commission’s daily production.

Following the water shortage problem that has bedeviled the country and affected production, Mr Kebonang advised the commission to find interim solutions to the situation such as the exploration and digging of boreholes to alleviate water shortage in the plant.

The water shortage is a crisis at the BMC plant, as the daily production totally comes to a halt, when there is no water supply.

The slaughtering process of the cattle needs water for proper cleaning of the by products that are sold to various customers across the country and to the European market.

However, the assistant minister said government was working round the clock to find solution to the water shortage situation facing the southern part of the country.

He said it was also proper for organisations to come up with ways to preserve and recycle water for use.

As the immediate stakeholders of the leather industry, Minister Kebonang briefed the BMC executive of the eminent take start-up of the leather park.

Mr Kebonang informed the BMC executive that the leather park is anticipated to start its full operation in 2017, indicating that currently, the Environmental Impact Assessment is being carried out and would be completed next year January.

For his part, BMC chief financial officer, Mr Shyam Goteti said since 2008, BMC had been experiencing a loss, adding that it was only in 2013 that the commission broke even and reached over P1 billion profit with 139 459 cattle having been successfully slaughtered during that year.

This, he accentuated to the good performance of the plant and the good marketing skills that were put forward by the commission’s marketing department. Ends