18 Jul 2013

The Ministry of Agriculture has signed a Memorandum of Agreement with the largest Italian abattoir group to buy Botswana beef.

 Assistant Minister of Agriculture, Mr Oreeditse Molebatsi said this when he appeared before the Parliamentary Select Committee on the enquiry of the Botswana Meat Commission (BMC).

The abattoir group called INALCA which is based in Rome, would top up their own domestic supplies with imported beef into Italy, which is the third largest beef producer in the European Market (EU).

 Mr Molebatsi explained that before getting into a deal with INALCA, he assembled a team of experts that comprised the current BMC chief executive officer, Dr Akolang Tombale, Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Agriculture, Dr Micus Chimbombi and some board members of the national abattoir who went to Rome to investigate and access the market.

He informed the committee that the future of the BMC looked bright more so that that INALCA had also assisted Botswana to access other markets in Angola and Iran with the first purchase order of 500 tonnes of meat to Iran having been approved and sealed.

The assistant minister also said his ministry was in negotiations with INALCA to open further markets in Russia. He said to rely on EU market alone was creating problems for the country due to its restrictions. Mr Molebatsi said the Francistown BMC would be the one providing beef to Italy and if possible, to the Russian markets.

He further said negotiations were also underway with a Durban-based company for the Maun abattoir to export its processed meat to South Africa. Mr Molebatsi said for the beef industry to recover, BMC should improve its meat inspections and processing facilities which were dilapidated.

However, he explained that Botswana would not dump its previous markets such as the Norwegian, which was one of the protected beef markets for the country. He however said the contract for the Norwegian market was coming to an end this year.

He advised that it was imperative for Botswana to continue opening more market outlets so that when the other markets close down, others would remain available. Minister Molebatsi was also of the view that it was sustainable for Botswana to have more than one abattoirs.

He said one advantage was that cattle were not tracked for a long distance to the nearest abattoir.  He submitted that what had to be done was to improve on the logistics and come up with good marketing strategies.

Mr Molebatsi said there was an established norm in the Ministry of Agriculture that the minister’s responsibilities dealt with animals, health, fencing policy issues, NAMPAADD and agricultural  trade issues. The minister was also responsible for agricultural parastatals such as the BMC, Botswana Vaccine Institute and Banyana farms.

He said as an assistant minister, he was in charge of crop and agricultural issues, agricultural support programmes, SADC, FAO issues and ISPAAD, adding that this did not mean that he could not take responsibility on issues that fell under his supervisor.  

Mr Molebatsi  agreed with the committee that there was also a decline in the beef industry in general, but the problem did not only lie with the government but also with cattle farmers themselves. He said out of the 10 000 cattle that were slaughtered at the Lobatse BMC every month, about 2 000 of them from the green zones were condemned because of diseases such as measles.

Mr Molebatsi  said government did not satisfy the requirements of the EU market that included the traceability system, which was being replaced by the micro-chip (ear-tag system). Ends