09 Sep 2018

Botswana will soon start exporting beef to a high-value tourist market of Seychelles.

This was said by President Mokgweetsi Masisi in an interview following his meeting with Seychelles President, Mr Danny Faure on September 8 during his one-day official visit.

President Masisi was visiting the country within a short space of time following his first visit early in May this year where they had agreed to broaden the scope of bilateral relations between the two countries.

“We have agreed on determining the general framework of cooperation that will lead to the establishment of a Joint Permanent Commission of Cooperation (JPCC) between the two countries. The JPCC will be signed on the sidelines of the upcoming African Union summit scheduled for Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, at the beginning of the year,” he said.

Broadening the scope of bilateral relations also includes collaboration on a number of areas such as the drafting of legal instruments where Botswana will assist Seychelles.

“Seychelles is also keen on growing her public institutions and it is ready to learn from Botswana to offer her technical support. In our commitment to serve our people we want to grow this. We have agreed on visitations, people of Seychelles will come for bench marking in our country,” President Masisi said.

Other areas of collaboration will include training at tertiary level in media, science and exchange programmes at universities, and to this, President Masisi noted that Seychelles was aware that Botswana had excess teachers that she may tap into their expertise.

He said in the tourism space, Botswana may tap into the expertise of Seychelles in air transport and logistics because of them being an island.

Meanwhile, Botswana Meat Commission (BMC), chief executive officer, Dr Akolang Tombale, who had accompanied President Masisi, said Seychelles had a desire to grow her beef imports from Botswana.

He said the country relied on beef from Brazil and that it was expected that 48 tonnes of Botswana beef would be exported and that the consignment may grow with time.

Dr Tombale further said Seychelles tourism was of good quality, adding that this called for the demand of good quality beef that Botswana was ready to offer.

He said BMC was in discussions with various companies that included Seychelles Trading Company which was a quasi-government and others on the possibilities of importing Botswana beef.

“We are working towards finalising specific export requirement, and we are also looking at the goat and free-range chickens export to this high-value tourist market of Europeans and Americans,” he said.

He said BMC had started preparing a wide array of beef products and that they were planning to start delivering the first consignment before the year ends. ENDS