08 Aug 2019

Christian De Graaff, has called on government to speed up liberalisation of the beef industry from the Botswana Meat Commission (BMC) monopoly.

Debating the BMC Transition Bill in Parliament on August 6, Mr De Graaff stated that it was pleasing to note that government had finally adhered to farmers’ request to allow more players in the beef industry, a move which he said would contribute positively towards growth of the industry.

MP De Graaff said the BMC Act had for a long time been giving the commission a monopoly over the export of beef and related products as well as prohibiting the export of live cattle.

Therefore, the commission had been operating on a comfort zone and not striving hard to increase its market share.

He said liberalisation of the beef industry would thus open the market to accommodate other competitors to the beef export market, therefore increasing the industry growth, which would translate into more job creation opportunities.

He also acknowledged the move to privatise the BMC, saying the process should particularly focus on transforming the commission into a limited liability company guided by the Company

Act, but further cautioned that government should ensure to retain a satisfactory control share of the company to at least protect the interests of Batswana.

Mr De Graaff indicated that in pursuit to private BMC, government should think of its social responsibility towards the livestock industry and to protect the small scale farmers who make up 80 per cent of beef producers.

“It is important for the bill to include a beef regulator who preferable should be the minister and the Department of Veterinary Services as the competition authority should also play important role to ensure compliance to the lucrative European Union market requirements,” he said.

The regulator, he said, should enforce compliance with the international standards and market requirements in the field of hygiene and traceable record keeping.

He emphasised the need for the upcoming private abattoirs to also be constructed as per the EU specification requirements in order to ensure compliance and avoid delisting.

MP for Maun East, Mr Kostantinos Markus, applauded the move to privatise the BMC, indicating that ‘it does not make business sense for government to continue injecting a lot of capital on the day to day operation of Botswana Meat Commission while the enterprise continues to be unprofitable.’

He said privatisation was necessary to withdraw government from commercial activities that no longer needed to be undertaken by the public sector thus relieving government of the administrative and financial burdens. He said the proposed BMC transition reforms would facilitate greater private sector participation in the economy and increase direct citizen participation in ownership of national assets.

The Maun East legislator indicated that BMC had for years proved to be insolvent and privatisation could be the only solution to its financial woes. Mr Markus noted that government needed to act swiftly in ensuring that the privatisation of BMC was completed as soon as possible in order to relief government from diverting funds that could be used to develop the country into bailing out the forever cash trapped BMC.

Contributing to the debate, MP for Ghanzi North, Mr Noah Salakae said the proposed reforms should address issues around the BMC livestock buying price and farmers late payments by the BMC.ENDS