30 Jul 2017

Botswana Meat Commission (BMC) transacts with cattle producers/farmers through its three abattoirs being Lobatse, Francistown and Maun, Parliament has been informed.

Minister of Agricultural Development and Food Security, Mr Patrick Ralotsia said payments for the three BMC abattoirs were up to date.

Mr Ralotsia said at Lobatse BMC, the majority of payments were up to date, save for some recorded in the months of June and early July 2017.

He said they were managed through Standard chartered Bank facility.  He said payments for 2017 for the Maun BMC were up to date and within schedule and were being managed by BancABC.

He said as for Francistown BMC, backlogs were experienced for months of April, May, June and part of July 2017.

He said they were currently being paid in batches as of July through BancABC.  He said payments for April and May have effected and that the ones for June were being done.

He said BMC was experiencing cash-flow challenges due to low supply of cattle during the months of April to June 2017 which also spilled-over into early days of July, 2017.   He said of all the three abattoirs, Francistown BMC was the worst affected as it only slaughtered less than 1000 cattle between January and March, 2017 against expected break-even supply of 6 400.

“Supply of cattle to Francistown BMC, even to date, has still not improved. This translates to slow-sales which in turn further erodes BMC cash reserves,” he said.

He said BMC’s liquidity was obtained through proceeds derived from sales and once the sales were undermined, so was the expediency of effecting farmer/producer payments.

Mr Ralotsia was answering a question from specially elected MP, Ms Bogolo Kenewendo who had asked  the minister when BMC would pay farmers for April, May 2017 purchases and what made it difficult for BMC to pay farmers who sold cattle to them timeously. ENDS