22 Mar 2020

Botswana Meat Commission (BMC) in Maun is struggling to meet its slaughtering target due to inadequate supply of animals.

The abattoir target was to slaughter 3 600 animals from January to March this year, but has so far slaughtered less than 500 animals.

Abattoir manager, Mr Oabona Ramotshwara, confirmed in an interview that in the first quarter of the year, they struggled to secure enough cattle for slaughter.

He blamed severe drought for the inadequate supply of animals, adding that this resulted in suspension of the quarantine system to allow the vegetation to recover. 

He said when Makalamabedi quarantine re-opened, farmers did not bring cattle on time. 

And, Mr Ramotshwara said some farmers did not bring cattle because they were still recovering from the impact of drought and the abattoir could not slaughter animals, which were not in good condition.He said the quarantine only admitted 300 cattle, because the relevant authority wanted to preserve vegetation.  Makalamabedi quarantine has four functional paddocks and each accommodated 600 animals.

In an attempt to arrest the situation, Mr Ramotshwara said they collected cattle from zones 4A and 3B, which covered Rakops and Gweta areas respectively.

He said they still did not manage to get satisfactory numbers of animals because of competition with other abattoirs, adding that private abattoirs paid on the spot, while Maun abattoir paid after 30 days.

“Our biggest challenge is late payment, hence we could not get adequate supply of cattle,” he added.

Mr Ramotshwara explained that the abattoir was expected to slaughter 100 cattle a day, but they slaughtered between 40 and 50, adding that at times, they slaughtered two times in a week.

He expressed wish that the number of animals at the quarantine could be increased since there was a lot of interest from farmers to bring more cattle, but were limited by the number accommodated.

He pointed out that the first pledge was over 500, but only 300 animals were accommodated.

Inadequate supply of animals, he said, had affected the international market since they produced less meat, which was sold locally. Mr Ramotshwara added that they experienced high demand of products since individuals and big supermarkets wanted truck loads, but they were unable to meet the demand. ends