19 Oct 2020

Assistant Minister of Agricultural Development and Food Security Ms Beauty Manake says Botswana is working on liberalising the beef industry and was doing the ground work to prepare the industry players to take advantage when the time comes.  

Speaking during a tour of Kang Meat Market and Abattoir at Kang on Saturday October 17 she said it was critical to appreciate challenges experienced by players in the beef industry and to adequately facilitate them to qualify for export market.

Thus she said government has put measures in place to check readiness in the market. She said it was critical to assess the beef value chain and facilitate players involved.   

Ms Manake noted that government wanted to create an export-led economy and touring of private abattoir facilities provided an avenue for decision makers to appreciate what was happening on the ground.

She said the process included engagement of experts to close gaps through capacity building so that abattoirs were facilitated and readied for international export.

Ms Manake said the ministry wanted to ensure that the beef value chain created other industries. She added that government had taken a decision to allow for live cattle export for three months

She noted that government wanted to close any gaps in the beef industry to create sustainable employment opportunities where livestock farmers could have better price for their cattle.

In an interview, agricultural development and food security permanent secretary, Mr Jimmy Opelo said government recognised that the industry had needed attention more than ever before because of different market dynamics in the beef value chain.

Touring Kang Meat Market and Abbatoir, he said, gave them firsthand experience of what was happening in the beef processing and beef value chain. He said key objective was to grow the industry where government targeted at exposing local private livestock abattoirs to external markets.

Thus he said for the beef industry to be readied to access markets it was important to sensitise private abattoir entities on opportunities that lie ahead and how they could prepare for new markets.

Furthermore, he said it was critical to sensitise them on issues of animal health, meat hygiene and standards to be followed when exporting.  He added that if abattoirs wanted to access the regional markets they must be ready and at the level where they could compete.

Thus he said for that to materialise, it was important to appreciate their challenges and determine how they could be facilitated to be ready during the time of beef market liberalisation, and as such more abattoirs facilities would be toured in the process.

“We are on the verge of beef market liberalisation. When that time comes which is not very far from now we do not want them to be caught off guard. We want them to be ready at any given time so that they know the requirements,” he said.

Currently, he said, there were about three abattoirs ready for export market and it was just a matter of them fulfilling administrative issues. “We want to trickle it down so that anybody who has capacity, skill and knowledge and can do it then let them do it,” he said. ENDS