10 Dec 2017

Botswana Meat Commission (BMC) chief executive officer, Dr Akolang Tombale says the commission’s plant is under utilised since they slaughter fewer cattle than its capacity allows.

Dr Tombale told farmers and stakeholders in Lobatse recently in a bid to try and establish why the target was never met. 

He called upon farmers and the community to come up with effective strategies to eradicate beef measles as it threatened the beef industry.

Dr Tombale said the other worrying factor was that currently BMC-Lobatse was slaughtering only 300 heads of cattle daily even though it had the capacity to triple the number.

He said the highest records were only achieved in 2010, but somehow did not translate into positive revenue followed by sharp decline of throughput in 2011 by 36 per cent.

He explained that in a 10-year period, Lobatse had slaughtered an average of 105 000 cattle. 

He said dismissal performance of Francistown abattoir continued averaging 1 288 cattle per month, which was far less than a weeks’ kill of 1 900 cattle.

Dr Tombale briefed farmers that Maun plant was closed for production since end of September due to Foot and Mouth Disease (FMD) outbreak. 

He stated that Lobatse BMC was the only functioning wheel with an average slaughter of 7 606 cattle per month. He said the highest slaughter month was August with 12 655 cattle.

He urged farmers to supply at least 23 000 cattle in the first quarter of 2018 for slaughter in Lobatse for EU although it would still be below the set target.

 He discouraged farmers who advocated for having their own abattoirs in their areas or regions, pleading with them to satisfy BMC demands first.

Farmers were told that Feedlots were imposed on BMC due to traceability requirements, saying since its inception it had a significant impact on BMC cash flow.

He said BMC bought weaners from farmers through DCP programme (Live Weight) and introduce them at Feedlot for feeding and making them compliant for EU slaughter.

Dr Tombale indicated that normal feeding days ranged between 90-120 days.

Once slaughtered, he said the product took close to 40 days to reach the destination, some time more than that based on the shipping logistics.

He explained that normal payment terms were 21 to 30 days, thus making the realisation close to 180 days from the day the beast is brought by BMC and the day money is received from the customer.

He noted that BMC took the risk on cattle mortalities, non-performance (growth) and measles, which had impact on cash flow.

Dr Tombale said BMC was also forced to buy cattle not suitable for feeding such as those with lower live weights, , which disadvantaged the BMC like.     

Farmers were also appraised on how measles affected the abattoirs.

He explained that many cattle slaughtered at the abattoirs had measles resulting in the abattoir incurring huge costs because of beef that had to be treated.

He said the situation was worse for Lobatse since the cattle were bought as EU cattle, but ended up not reaching the EU market due to measles at the same increasing costs for the BMC and farmers.

He stated that on average, Lobatse accounted for 65 per cent of BMC measles cases. 

He said the highest number of measles was recorded in June at 1 418 cattle with Lobatse detecting more cases. 

Dr Tombale urged farmers to build toilets at their cattle posts to curb the escalating rate of cattle found with measles.

He indicated that all relevant stakeholders were working round the clock to ensure that the abattoir regained its status of supplying the EU market.

Most of the farmers decried late payment and low prices. 

They wanted Francistown abattoir to be closed because it was unproductive.

 The farmers indicated that BMC prices were too low despite the expensive cattle feeds and late payments.

They encouraged fellow farmers to form and join farmers associations so that their voices could be heard. 

Farmers indicated that roads leading to their farms were also in bad conditions.     

Mr Neo Moroka from Kgalagadi South noted that last year they experienced challenges such as shortage of water, which affected production and poor pastures. 

Mr Moroka encouraged farmers to practice range management and keep good breeds. 

He said there were trees such as Mongana and Mokha, which needed to be demolished in the farms because they compete for water and nutrients with good grasses.

In response, Dr Tombale said they would address concerns raised by farmers such as late payments and advised them to keep farming as a business venture.

He explained that delayed payments for farmers, which went up to three months, had been a challenge at BMC and negatively impacted on farmers. ENDS