30 May 2021

 Botswana Meat Commission’s (BMC) Francistown abattoir will slaughter sheep and goats as the country readies for the Saudi Arabia market, the Vice President, Mr Slumber Tsogwane has said.

During a Thursday May 27 tour of the abattoir, which was closed in 2018, Mr Tsogwane explained that modalities were underway to meet market regulatory requirements in targeted countries.

The Vice President explained that inspectors from Saudi Arabia would inspect the abattoir and map the way forward.

He said Botswana had realised that the small stock production had good returns and that the demand for small stock meat was high in the Asian markets.

He said internationally, people preferred Botswana mutton and goat meat because smallstock was not fed genetically modified products.  

Mr Tsogwane appealed to Batswana to commercialise small stock production since it had potential to create employment  and improve their living standards.

“I encourage Batswana to rear more smallstock and use government policies and programmes such as CEDA and LIMID to venture into small stock business,” he added.

He said the North East District, which had an acute shortage of land for livestock production was ideal for the small stock industry because it did not require much land.

Earlier on, the district agricultural officer, Mr Gwilidzani Maphosa informed the Vice President that since its inception in 1997, the BMC Francistown plant had struggled to achieve the 400 per day slaughter, which was about 88 000 cattle per year.

He explained that the highest it had achieved was in 2001 when 71 200 cattle were slaughtered with the lowest in 2011 at 10 000 when there was an outbreak of Foot and Mouth Disease (FMD) in its catchment area.

When considering small stock slaughter, Mr Maphosa explained that the BMC plant only operated for only four years with an expected slaughtering capacity of 150 small stock per day which was never achieved as it only slaughtered 50 per day.

He, however, explained that the small stockslaughter lasted for four years with a slaughtering capacity of 3 875 goats.

Francistown South MP, Mr Wynter Mmolotsi thanked government for considering to re-open the abattoir for small stock production.

He explained that whilst in operation, the abattoir would play an important role in the lives of people in the north.

Mr Mmolotsi further said opening of the facility would encourage many people in the area to take small stock production seriously.

He appealed to the government to speed up the allocation of land for small stock so that Batswana could venture into small stock production in full capacity. ENDS